SDLP manifesto boasts shredded on Stephen Nolan BBC Radio Ulster show

THE SDLP's boasts that its Assembly election manifesto has been fully costed were shredded in a live BBC Radio Ulster by Stephen Nolan on Wednesday in an interview that had SDLP MLA Gerard Diver squirming throughout but finally confessing that just five SDLP election pledges have been costed – not its raft of manifesto promises.

Sinn Féin Agriculture Minister Michelle O'Neill said previously that the SDLP manifesto is “a wish list based on Alice in Wonderland economics”.

The former Chair of the Assembly Finance Committee, Daithí McKay, said after the interview:

“Even where they claim that they have costings, we now know that these have been wildly miscalculated.

“As Chair of the DFP Committee in the last Assembly, I listened to the SDLP object to every Budget brought forward by the Executive even when that budget provided funding for essential government projects like the A5 and A6.

“It is now obvious that the SDLP simply do not have the experience or the understanding to deal responsibly with government finances.

“A manifesto that cannot be delivered in government is meaningless. The SDLP should immediately withdraw their uncosted, unfunded and undeliverable promises.”

On Wednesday, the SDLP spokesperson protested in the Stephen Nolan interview that he wasn't taking part in “some sort of University Challenge thing” on his party's figures.

Stephen Nolan reminded him: 

“It's been your party which has been publicly boasting that you have costed your manifesto. You have gone further than that, you're suggesting that you're the only party which has costed your manifesto. And that is clearly untrue as we sit here this morning. Parts of it might have been costed but the whole manifesto has not been costed.”

Seasoned political observer Eamonn Mallie tweeted to the Stephen Nolan show:

“Please free this SDLP spokesman from this tyranny. Why does any party leader expose a member to such ignominy?”