The nationalist SDLP was today accused of engaging in stunt politics after it clashed with Gerry Adams over the lead role MI5 will have in intelligence gathering in Northern Ireland.
Mr Adams rounded on the SDLP's Alex Attwood and Dolores Kelly after they staged an Assembly Election photo opportunity outside the new £20 million headquarters of the agency on the outskirts of Belfast.
Ms Kelly, who raised MI5's future role in Northern Ireland at a meeting with police chief Sir Hugh Orde, issued a fresh plea to the Sinn Fein president to oppose plans for the agency to be given the lead role in managing agents.
"At our meeting with the Chief Constable, we urged the Police Service of Northern Ireland to stand up for accountability and stand strong against the proposed MI5 takeover," she said.
"We make the same appeal to Sinn Fein. Instead of pretending that they have won something on MI5 - when they plainly have not - they should be standing with us to protect Patten.
"(Sinn Fein's) Gerry Kelly said that the Blair/Adams deal on MI5 gets us 'a very major step closer' to getting MI5 out of Ireland. In fact what we are getting is a huge new headquarters and MI5 agents able to operate without any accountability to (police ombudsman) Nuala O'Loan.
"That is bad for policing. It is bad for politics. And it is bad for families who want to get to the truth."
In the run-up to last month's historic move by Sinn Fein to support the police, Gerry Adams' party welcomed an announcement by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the PSNI and MI5 would have completely distinct roles.
MI5 will take over the lead responsibility for intelligence gathering later this year. Mr Adams, however, dismissed the photo opportunity which saw the two SDLP Policing Board members holding a mock road sign.
"The SDLP have had considerable difficulty with their advertisements recently and I would like to think they would take more time," he countered.
"I remember an (Assembly) election ago, they said they would stop the DUP. How did they deal with that? (SDLP leader) Mark Durkan stood like an eejit in the middle of the road with a 'Stop' sign.
PA