SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan was today accused of burying his head in the sand after he attacked hardline unionist claims that the Belfast Agreement was unworkable.
Democratic Unionist MP Mr Gregory Campbell warned Mr Durkan that his political strategy would result in the SDLP's electoral decline after he denied an alternative settlement was needed in Northern Ireland.
Responding to DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson's argument that Sinn Féin and the SDLP were "stuck in a time warp," over the 1998 Belfast Agreement, Mr Durkan argued hardline unionists were "out of touch".
"It is the DUP that needs to face up to facts. "As the party that did more than any other to negotiate the Agreement, the SDLP will not renegotiate it. We will not in any way dilute its principles," Mr Durkan said.
"The SDLP put inclusion into the Good Friday Agreement. It includes those who have voted yes and those who have voted no.
"It includes the DUP in government every bit as much as any other party.
"The SDLP has never sought to write off DUP participation in government and we are entitled to demand that the DUP not write off the Agreement."
However Mr Campbell said the SDLP leader's argument ignored fundamental realities about the current political process.
The East Derry MP asked: "Does Mr Durkan forget that the Agreement itself provides that to function over 50% of designated unionists must vote to elect a First and Deputy First Minister?
"How does Mr Durkan suggest that, for him, this unpalatable reality is dealt with?
"Indeed Mr Durkan's suggestion that it was the parties rather than the Agreement which had failed is utterly meaningless and fails to accept that the process cannot move forward in its current form."
Mr Campbell claimed while nationalists clung to the Agreement like "some kind of a security blanket," it was not capable of commanding the support of both communities in Northern Ireland.
PA