The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Paul Murphy, was struggling to contain the crisis threatening to destroy British government policy in Northern Ireland yesterday as he announced a package of financial sanctions against Sinn Féin.
In a significant toughening of the unionist mood, Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble told Mr Murphy that if he would not permit the creation of a power-sharing government without Sinn Féin, the only alternative would be "to democratise Direct Rule" .
At the same time, The Irish Times has learned that the DUP leadership has told the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, it can "see no circumstances in which the republican movement can reform itself to the point where Sinn Féin could be partners in government".
The repositioning of both unionist parties ahead of the general election continued as Mr Murphy insisted that "the [British] government's ultimate goal remains the achievement of an inclusive power-sharing executive."
In a House of Commons statement, Mr Murphy maintained: "The reality remains that long-term stability in Northern Ireland will not come about if we focus on exclusion."
However, an angry Mr Peter Robinson, the DUP deputy leader, suggested Mr Murphy was afraid to endorse the assertion by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, that Sinn Féin's Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness were members of the IRA's army council because of the implications for the government's policy of "inclusion".
As expected, Mr Murphy told MPs he plans to withhold Sinn Féin's Stormont Assembly party block grant of £120,000 for a further year when the existing penalty expires at the end of April.
Responding to the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report on the Northern Bank robbery, Mr Murphy also signalled a Commons debate, probably in two weeks, on a Government motion to suspend the secretarial allowances and other expenses of Sinn Féin's four Westminster MPs. These allowances are worth £500,000 annually.
Sinn Féin's Mr Alex Maskey was in London to denounce the move. The former Lord Mayor of Belfast said Mr Murphy had "no right to discriminate against democratically elected Irish politicians" and vowed: "We will continue to fight this discrimination politically, legally and through an ongoing campaign of democratic resistance."
However, the sound of Sinn Féin fury did nothing to calm unionist anger as the Conservatives determined to try to amend the government motion to also withdraw Sinn Féin's Westminster office facilities.
The party's spokesman, Mr David Lidington, last night challenged the government to clarify whether Sinn Féin staff would still be given House of Commons passes, even if their salaries were being paid from "other sources of funding".
The SDLP's Mr Seamus Mallon said his party would oppose the proposed sanctions. "The IRA and Sinn Féin thrive on victimhood and grievances," he told MPs. However, Mr Mallon pressed Mr Murphy to explain why the issue of "organised crime" had not been included in the legislation establishing the IMC or in the British-Irish Joint Declaration of April 2003. While Mr Murphy maintained that the two governments had insisted all along on an end to "all violence and criminality", Mr Mallon's colleague, Mr McGrady, said government had ignored three major robberies allegedly perpetrated by the IRA during last year's political negotiations.
"Does this mean that PIRA must decommission, de-structure and decriminalise before an executive can be set up?" asked Mr McGrady.
Mr Murphy told the Commons that, had the robbery occurred while the Assembly was sitting, "the decision about exclusion [of Sinn Féin] would have been very different".