The SDLP leader Mark Durkan has told new Northern Secretary Peter Hain that following the election his party will not enter into a voluntary coalition with the DUP and Ulster Unionists that would exclude Sinn Féin.
The SDLP Westminster parliamentary team of Foyle MP Mr Durkan, South Down MP Eddie McGrady and new South Belfast MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell held their first meeting with the Northern Secretary yesterday.
"We promised voters before this election that we would not turn our back on inclusion and we would not turn a blind eye to criminality. We stand by that. That is why we clearly ruled out voluntary coalition at our meeting," said Mr Durkan.
"We told Peter Hain that the Good Friday agreement has to be the agenda. He has to work with the Irish Government and all the parties to end suspension and restore the institutions. That must be his priority," he added.
The SDLP leader said that Mr Hain should restore the Northern executive and Assembly and challenge the parties to participate in them. He warned the Northern Secretary that the SDLP opposed the "comprehensive settlement" that narrowly failed to be adopted by the DUP and Sinn Féin last December.
"Last December's deal between Sinn Féin and the DUP was not just failed, it was flawed. It weakened the protections of the Good Friday agreement," he said.
The SDLP won three seats in the general election and with 17 per cent of the vote, the same percentage vote it won in the Assembly poll in 2003. It took 101 seats in the local election, down 17 on the last one four years ago.
These results had confounded some pundits' predictions, said Mr Durkan. "Rather than eat their words about their misplaced predictions they are now trying to redirect their attack on the SDLP by saying our Westminster performances mask poor performances," he said.
"The fact is in a very difficult environment with a media message of inevitability setting a very strong tide against us, we held our vote from the Assembly election and recovered from a drop in our vote in the European election."
He denied speculation that the SDLP could eventually merge with Fianna Fáil to create an all-Ireland party. "Our position on the issue of political realignment is what it always has been: we're not pursuing mergers with parties in the South," he said.
"What the SDLP is pursuing is getting the Good Friday agreement restored, getting not only the institutions re-established but other institutions such as the North-South Interparliamentary Forum and the North-South Consultative Forum set up.
"Those will provide natural and organic realignment over time, realignment that will express itself in terms that are not about blunt mergers," added Mr Durkan.
