Conservative and Unionist attempts to toughen the terms for Sinn Fein's entry into the Northern Ireland Executive were defeated in the House of Commons last night.
At the same time, Mr David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader and Northern Ireland's First Minister designate, raised the possibility of an Assembly vote of no confidence in Sinn Fein's commitment to exclusively peaceful means, even before the party assumes ministerial office.
Mr Trimble fired his latest warning as Northern Ireland Minister of State, Mr Paul Murphy, confirmed the RUC is investigating the possible involvement of the Provisional IRA in last weekend's murder of Mr Andrew Kearney in Belfast.
As MPs continued their line-by-line examination of the Northern Ireland Bill - implementing the Belfast Agreement - Mr Trimble appeared once more on a potential collision course with the SDLP and the Irish Government. Dublin and SDLP sources confirmed their belief that the creation of the Executive in "shadow" form could not be delayed much beyond the end of September; sources close to Mr Trimble suggested it was unlikely before the Bill goes on to the Statute Book in the autumn at the earliest.
At the same time, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, was returning from Washington to face growing political pressure over Mr Kearney's killing.
Ministers were repeatedly pressed over Mr Kearney's killing, and the scale of paramilitary so-called punishment beatings, in the Commons yesterday. Mr Murphy told MPs that a "vigorous police investigation" was under way: "The House will want to know that a line of inquiry being pursued by the RUC is that the murder of Mr Kearney may have been carried out by the Provisional IRA."
The political consequences, should IRA involvement be established, would ultimately be for the Assembly to determine.
After a three-hour debate on the vital Clause 23 of the Northern Ireland Bill - providing the mechanisms for exclusion from office of parties or individuals not sustaining a commitment to exclusively peaceful means - the Government voted down the Conservative amendment by 272 votes to 144, a government majority of 128.
The Conservative amendment, moved by Mr Andrew Mackay, the shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, sought to stipulate explicitly that individuals and parties taking office be committed "to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations and the achievement of the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms by May 22nd, 2000" and be "co-operating fully" with the International Commission tasked to oversee decommissioning.
Mr Trimble urged the government to accept the Conservative amendment, which he argued amplified the two-year decommissioning objective stipulated by the Belfast Agreement.
But Mr Murphy insisted they could not accept proposals adding to or varying the specific terms of the Agreement, and maintained anyway that the provisions of the Bill as drafted were sufficient to deal with the issue and to honour the assurance of the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, that "there can be no fudge between democracy and terror". The Tory amendment also won support from Labour MP, Ms Kate Hoey, who expressed the fear that, given the desire for reconciliation, "we will continue to always give the benefit of the doubt to the terrorist". The minister needed to assure the House that would not happen, she said.
Mr Peter Robinson, for the Democratic Unionist Party, said the Conservative amendment, while tightening the provisions of the Bill, would make no real difference, since the need for a crosscommunity vote amounted to an SDLP veto on the issue of exclusion.
What was needed, he said, was a mechanism requiring a cross-community vote "to get them into office, rather than to get them out". During a heated exchange, Mr Eddie McGrady of the SDLP told Mr John Taylor (UUP) that his party was committed to the letter and spirit of the Belfast Agreement: "That means that any party engaged in violence will not receive our support for office in the Assembly."
Mr Trimble insisted he was not following an agenda for exclusion. But he said it was "perfectly possible for the Assembly, prior to any person taking up office, to declare that it lacked confidence in the commitment to peace and democracy of a particular party".
As he said during Monday's Second Reading debate: "As things stand at the moment, in the situation that exists at the moment, it is not possible for me - nor do I believe it possible for anyone else who looks honestly and clearly at the circumstances - to say that today they have confidence in the commitment of Sinn Fein/IRA to peaceful means and the democratic process."