A SENIOR member of the DUP has accused the SDLP’s leader of a “lack of respect” over the party’s support for a prisoner’s early release.
Arlene Foster was commenting after Alasdair McDonnell gave his backing to Dungannon Council’s call for Gerry McGeough to be freed.
McGeough was convicted last year for the 1981 IRA murder bid on Sammy Brush, who now sits as a DUP councillor in Dungannon.
At the time of the attack, Mr Brush was a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Inside Politics programme at the weekend, Mr McDonnell defended the three SDLP councillors’ support for the motion saying his party believed all prisoners should be “treated with dignity and respect”.
However, Mrs Foster, a Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, said the SDLP leader “seems to have a moral blind spot” when it comes to the feelings of Mr Brush.
“Gerry McGeough has been tried and found guilty of Sammy’s attempted murder. For the SDLP to say that McGeough is being ‘victimised’ yet not proffer a single word about my colleague Sammy Brush speaks volumes about the double standards in that party. Such an approach is disgusting,” she said.
On the same programme, Mr McDonnell also rejected the suggestion his party was adopting a more extreme position than Sinn Fein.
He said: “We are not out-greening Sinn Fein. Quite simply there is a strong feeling the SDLP is a civil rights party — it grew out of civil rights and we believe that people are entitled to fair play, regardless of what their political views are.”
The South Belfast MP claimed that some prisoners were being put back in jail without evidence of re-offending and added: “We believe prisoners, once put in prison, should be treated with dignity and respect, and rehabilitated to play a constructive role in society – not be victimised or picked on.”
Mr Brush has said he feels “humiliated” by the vote and added: “How do you cooperate with and support people who support someone who tried to take my life?”