SDLP leader Colum Eastwood
CHANCES of a General Election pact being hatched anti-Brexit parties are “very slim”, says SDLP leader Colum Eastwood.
The Foyle MLA was speaking after Green Party leader Steven Agnew said he would not unite with the SDLP, Sinn Féin or Ulster Unionists ahead of June’s poll.
The SDLP and Sinn Féin held discussions today about the prospect of striking a deal on standing candidates.
Mr Eastwood said that his party would only make an agreement with Sinn Féin if independent candidates could not be found.
He said he would not back a candidate who would abstain from taking a seat in the House of Commons, and added that his party does “not do sectarian pacts”.
Sinn Féin said it is committed to “maximising the anti-Brexit vote”.
Michelle O’Neill, the party’s Stormont leader, said that the failure of Brexit-opposing parties to agree a “progressive alliance” in some constituencies ahead of the election would “almost certainly gift” seats to “pro-Brexit hardliners”.
“I would urge those parties to reconsider,” she added.
The DUP picked south Belfast as one constituency it could gain from the SDLP if the UUP did not field a candidate on Thursday, June 8.
Green Party leader Steven Agnew said he met parties that had “taken a pro-Remain stance” in last year’s EU referendum to discuss a possible deal ahead of June’s poll.
But his Green Party members have concluded that they could not strike a deal with parties that do not share their “vision for a progressive society”.
There is “too much distance” between those parties and his, Mr Agnew added.
He said the SDLP’s decision to select sitting MP Alasdair McDonnell as its South Belfast candidate for the snap election “put to an end any chance of an agreed candidate”.
“Mr McDonnell doesn’t trust women, as evidenced by his position at the forefront of the SDLP anti-choice [abortion] policy,” Mr Agnew said.
He cited Sinn Féin’s policy of not taking its seats in the House of Commons as another reason why his party would not enter a pact.
“It is impossible to oppose hard Brexit at every turn without taking seats in parliament,” he said.
And he criticised Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, saying she “refused to engage” on the issue of a potential pact.
In a statement, the Alliance Party said Mr Agnew and his party had “belatedly recognised their own naivety in even considering pacts”.
The UUP will not field a candidate in Foyle at the General Election.
The seat will be a two-horse race between sitting MP Mark Durkan and the Sinn Fein young pretender Elisha McCallion who is expected to be unveiled this Thursday as its candidate for Foyle.
Mr Durkan holds a 6,000 strong majority over Sinn Fein and at the 2015 General Election he saw his share of the vote increase.
Sinn Fein – who fielded Gearoid O’Heara in 2015 – saw its share of the vote drop at the General Election polls.
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