“Margaret Ritchie’s address to business leaders in Belfast at the weekend was the most right-wing speech from any party leader in this campaign so far”, according to People Before Profit candidate for Foyle, Eamonn McCann.
“I challenge the SDLP candidates in Foyle to say whether they support her demand for ‘small government’, the privatisation of public services and for civil servants to makes decision on the basis of free market, neo-liberal philosophy”, he says.
“David Cameron could have made the speech delivered to business leaders without changing a syllable.
“Ms. Ritchie wanted ‘outsourcing…the disposal of assets and, where it makes sense, the privatisation of certain undertakings’. This raises the questions – what services does she want ‘outsourced’, what assets does she want the public sector to get rid of, what ‘undertakings’ does she want privatised?”, Mr. McCann asks.
“The lack of detail suggests strongly that neither health nor education would be safe in the hands of the SDLP under Margaret Ritchie”, he claims.
“Over the past four years, the SDLP has tried to present itself as more progressive than the DUP/Sinn Fein Coalition for Cuts – which isn’t difficult. But Friday’s speech leaves no room for doubt that Ms. Ritchie has shifted the party so far to the Right that it is has bypassed the DUP, never mind Sinn Fein.
“I do not believe Mark Durkan would have made this speech. I don’t expect him to repudiate his successor as leader. But I think it fair to ask the party’s Assembly candidates to say clearly whether they are asking for votes on the basis their leader has set out.”
