The SDLP have submitted amendments to the Welfare and Work Reform Bill debated in Westminster today.
This follows the passage of a Legislative Consent Motion by the DUP and Sinn Fein that allows the Conservative Government to legislate on Welfare in the place of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
South Down MP Margaret Ritchie (SDLP) said: “This does not represent good government. It is a corruption of democracy. We have witnessed the removal of the democratic rights of the Northern Ireland Assembly in an abdication of responsibility by both the DUP and Sinn Fein.
“As a Party that negotiated the Good Friday Agreement, an agreement supported by the vast majority of people in Ireland, we believe this debate should be taking place in the Northern Ireland Assembly. We have a deep sense of anger that the power to deal with this welfare legislation has been passed back to London simply to save the blushes and electoral fortunes of Sinn Fein. “Allowing the Tory Government to legislate for welfare reform will financially penalise vulnerable people and cause greater levels of poverty with further predicted cuts coming. Benefit caps, sanctions and reductions in work tax credits will only curb economic growth and deepen poverty. “The SDLP has tabled amendments to curtail the Secretary of State’s power over our welfare, welfare that Sinn Fein and the DUP have handed over. Devolution in Northern Ireland was hard fought over long democratic struggle and the SDLP refuse to give it up unquestioningly.”
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