PUP councillor says SF should be given posts

A Progressive Unionist Party councillor and former lord mayor, Mr Hugh Smyth, has said Sinn Fein should be given a share of posts…

A Progressive Unionist Party councillor and former lord mayor, Mr Hugh Smyth, has said Sinn Fein should be given a share of posts on Belfast City Council. His comments came as Sinn Fein said it might withdraw the threat of legal action if its exclusion from all council chairs and external bodies was reconsidered.

The current SDLP Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alban Maginness, has offered to chair private talks between the parties on the issue.

Mr Smyth told the Belfast Telegraph he was "heartily sick" of Sinn Fein nominations from council committees being overturned at full council meetings every month, mostly due to the combined votes of the UUP, DUP and Alliance.

"We are turning this place into a political football," he said.

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"We should be trying to come together and move forward."