PAUL Doherty has sensationally quit the SDLP.
In a social media post this afternoon the Belfast councillor, who is currently deputy Lord Mayor, announced that he has left the party. It comes after SDLP councillors abstained from a vote on Thursday evening at a specially convened meeting at City Hall where councillors voted through a DUP motion to reconsider a decision to close a planning enforcement investigation over a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Twinbrook.
The statue was unveiled in May last year beside the Republican Garden on Gardenmore Road in Twinbrook. Bobby Sands, who was from the area, was elected MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone just prior to his death on hunger-strike while in prison in Long Kesh in May 1981.
The DUP motion passed with 27 votes for, 22 against and three no votes from the Green Party. The SDLP members did not vote.
In the aftermath of the vote there has been a backlash against the SDLP on social media.
Posting on Facebook this afternoon Cllr Doherty said: "I have left the SDLP with immediate effect.
"My focus will remain on the ground in my community, representing the people of West Belfast.
"For clarity, I was not at the hastily arranged Belfast City Council meeting this week – contrary to some posts directed at me. I was dealing with an emerging issue in the community and therefore did not have the opportunity to vote against the DUP motion – which I would have done. Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply trying to score cheap political points.
"As someone from West Belfast, I know the Bobby Sands statue in Twinbrook holds real significance for people in our community and beyond. People should be fully entitled to remember him in this way, and I fully support that. Shame on the DUP and others for turning this into a political stunt.
"My focus remains, as always on the people of my community. If anyone would like to engage further on this directly, you know where I am."
