THE Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has accused the British Labour Party of conducting a "McCarthy style witch hunt" after he was forced to cancel a House of Commons meeting with two left wing MPs.
Mr Adams had hoped to have a private meeting with Mr Jeremy Corbyn and Mr Tony Benn in the Commons. However, following the arrest of five suspected IRA terrorists and the discovery of 10 tonnes of explosives in London earlier this week, the Labour leadership threatened to withdraw the whip from the veteran MPs if the Commons meeting went ahead.
Instead, the two MPs met Mr Adams at a private address. Afterwards, Mr Corbyn and Mr Benn said that they had written to the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, calling for round table talks on Northern Ireland which would include all the political parties and both governments. Copies of the letter have been sent to the Taoiseach and President Clinton.
Speaking at a press conference at the Irish Centre in Camden to publicise his book, Mr Adams said that he did not know Diarmuid O'Neill, the suspected IRA terrorist shot during this week's security operation, but he repeated his call for the British authorities to state whether Mr O'Neill was unarmed at the time.