DUP leader on Belfast City Council won’t talk to Sinn Féin elected councillors

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

‘It is the sort of politics engaged in 20 years ago in City Hall and I’m sure will shock the vast majority of citizens of Belfast’

THE leader of the DUP group on Belfast City Council refuses to talk to Sinn Féin councillors even though DUP leader Peter Robinson leads the Executive alongside Martin McGuinness, it has been revealed.

Sinn Féin’s group leader on Belfast City Council, Councillor Jim McVeigh, said DUP Councillor William Humphrey “seems locked in a pre-Peace Process time warp”, adding:

“It is the sort of politics engaged in 20 years ago in City Hall and I’m sure will shock the vast majority of citizens of Belfast.”

It is a mentality, Jim McVeigh said, that prevents the DUP council group leader from condemning the unionist mob attack on Tuesday on Mayor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir at a park opening in Woodvale “or tries to explain away the placing of religious statues on loyalist bonfires over the Twelfth”.

Jim McVeigh said:

“It seems that Councillor Humphrey has missed the point that his party leader jointly leads the Executive alongside Martin McGuinness. He seems locked in a pre-Peace Process time warp.

“It’s ludicrous.”

•  Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and DUP leader Peter Robinson at a Belfast City Council investment programme launch

The Sinn Féin councillor said there are many good and decent DUP members in Belfast City Hall who want to engage and want work collectively for the betterment of Belfast.

“They are being held back by the sectarian and backward behaviour of a few.”

He said the DUP leadership should take action to bring their own members into line with their own party policy.

“Refusing to talk to other elected representatives is simply unacceptable and cannot be defended or excused.”

Earlier, Jim McVeigh said:

“It is clear that a small section of unionism is trying to stop progress and from Belfast becoming a city of equals. William Humphrey is aligning himself with this negative and sectarian element. The DUP has continued to be led by the nose by this element and it’s time William Humphrey and his party colleagues stood up for democracy, equality and against sectarian hatred.”