SDLP leader Mr John Hume today angrily hit out at Northern Secretary Mr Peter Mandelson for suggesting his party's refusal to endorse planned policing reforms was driven by electoral considerations.
Speaking in Derry, Mr Hume said he found the claim "deeply offensive".
The SDLP, along with Sinn Fein, is refusing to take its places on the new Policing Board which will oversee the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland because it believes the British government has watered-down the Patten Report proposals.
Mr Hume said: "I am appalled at the suggestion that the SDLP has adopted a position on policing as a result of electoral considerations.
"The line being peddled to newspapers by those who oppose our views holds absolutely no water whatsoever.''
Last Tuesday, Mr Mandelson appealed to the SDLP not to "torpedo" the peace process by delaying police reforms.
What had been achieved on policing was "a small miracle", he said, and added: "I think it would be terrible if at this stage, for the sake of some relatively small issues on which we have yet to get clarity - but will do so - or for the sake of politics and a shadow of an upcoming election, we were to let this enormous prize slip from out grasp now."
Mr Hume insisted his party's position on policing had been consistent throughout and the prize of a policing service which could be welcomed in every street was something worth striving for.
"When the SDLP believes it can go to the people of Northern Ireland and say to them ,this policing service will work for all our benefit', we will not hesitate in doing so," he said.
Anyone who believed otherwise was wrong "or deliberately trying to misrepresent us for their own political gain".
Earlier, Ulster Unionists accused the SDLP of double standards and being afraid to commit themselves to the reforms.
Sir Reg Empey said his party had gone into government with Sinn Fein with far fewer assurances on IRA decommissioning than the SDLP had on policing.
He said the SDLP had been the party that told them, "you have to go into government, take the leap of faith, go into government with republicans and you will be surprised at the response that you will receive".
Ulster Unionists had taken that leap of faith, Sir Reg said. "We jumped twice, three times."
But Mark Durkan, the SDLP Finance Minister at Stormont, insisted: "We need to get this right, we are not playing political games here, there are outstanding issues."
Mr Durkan said some people were saying that relative to the concessions they got in amendments to policing legislation, the outstanding issues were a small matter.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said the government needed to bring in amending legislation to bridge the gap between the current Policing Act and the minimum threshold set by Patten.
He said "tinkering" with the Implementation Plan was not enough.
The nationalist and republican communities had "waited 80 years for a proper policing service. That is a prize we must win", he said.
PA