SF stripped of Commons allowances
10/03/2005 - 18:13:03Sinn Féin MPs were today stripped of around £440,000 (€327,546) of House of Commons allowances as punishment for the party’s links to an IRA bank robbery.
But a cross-party bid to permanently kick the four MPs out of their Westminster offices and bar them from using parliamentary facilities as well was rejected.
MPs agreed without a vote to a year-long suspension of the taxpayer-funded benefits such as staff salaries and travel costs.
It came after they threw out a bid to up the punishment by 170 votes to 358, majority 188 and to make it permanent by 171 to 357, majority 186.
House of Commons leader Peter Hain said the move reflected the “profound disapproval of this House” at the IRA’s activities and Sinn Féin’s share of the blame for them.
This week’s “extraordinary and abhorrent” IRA offer to shoot those responsible for the pub murder of Catholic Robert McCartney underlined the need for it, he said.
The suspension of allowances – which can be renewed in a year if the situation has not improved – followed a damning report on the Belfast Northern Bank robbery by the Independent Monitoring Commission, which recommended imposing penalties.
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said all possible sanctions were “deeply inadequate” in dealing with the criminality of the last few weeks, which was “poisoning the political process”.
Sinn Féin Assembly Group leader Conor Murphy denounced the removal of the party’s allowances at Westminster.
Mr Murphy said his party would resist any moves to disenfranchise its voters or criminalise its members.
“We will continue to defend our integrity. We will continue to defend our mandate.”
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