SDLP FOYLE MP Mark Durkan has tonight said that the Alasdair McDonnell should quit now as party leader.
He told the BBC political programme The View programme: “I think he should go now.”
Mr Durkan, the former SDLP leader, was the only party MP to increase his vote in the face of strong performances by Sinn Fein candidates.
Dr McDonnell has been fighting a rearguard action to hold to the reins of the party after two disappointing election results over the last two years.
He announced last weekend he would be stepping down as south Belfast MLA but would not be reliquishing his hands of the leadership rudder.
Former deputy leader Seamus Mallon said earlier this week that Mr McDonnell should step aside as leader and let someone else take over ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.
Earlier today, Dr McDonnell said that he had no intention of standing down, adding: “I am not going anywhere. I still have a job to do.”
However, tonight Mr Durkan dealt his boss’s chances of staying on a major blow by stating he should step down as leader and “concentrate his mind on his Westminster business”.
He said that question of the leadership came up “time and again” while he was canvassing in the Foyle constituency.
Mr Durkan told BBC presenter Mark Carruthers: “The leadership needs to change and he needs to fulfill his best role in serving as MP for south Belfast.
“He needs to make a clear decision.
“The people want to see a new leadership going with a strong platform going into the Asssembly elections.
“His leadership was a real issue on the doorstep.
“They were staying away from from voting by politics in general….but a lot were disappointed…and that was put down to the leadership.
“I am not dictating the timetable for this as to when he should or should not go.”
Mr Durkan denied he had any interest of taking over the reins again of the party if Mr McDonnells stepped aside.
However, he said any leadership contest would “invigorating” for the party if and when it came about.
The earliest a leadership contest could be held would be this November.
Front runners being tipped would be Derry MLA Colum Eastwood and former UTV political reporter and south Belfast MLA Ferghal McKinney.
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