Little love lost in tough battle for leadership of SDLP

The votes of Durkan loyalists could be crucial in a fractious campaign that could do more harm than good, writes DAN KEENAN

The votes of Durkan loyalists could be crucial in a fractious campaign that could do more harm than good, writes DAN KEENAN

IT WAS never going to surprise anyone that Alasdair McDonnell would be the first to announce his ambition to lead the SDLP. Nor was it any great shock to learn that a candidate would be found to oppose him.

However, the unveiling of Stormont Minister Margaret Ritchie as that opponent is making the first leadership election in the party’s 40-year history something to watch.

Ritchie, standing against the counsel of South Down MP and political mentor Eddie McGrady, is now the hope of those who feel departing leader Mark Durkan has been harshly treated by so-called colleagues. She is also the flag-carrier for those who would rather have anyone but Dr McDonnell.

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Durkan was always Hume’s chosen successor. Indeed his leadership style has been similar, being big on policy rather than organisation. However, SDLP structures at local level remain too weak and baronial, at times appearing as a collection of local fiefdoms, not unlike the old Nationalist Party it helped sweep aside, and the mirror opposite to the highly centralised Sinn Féin.

Internal grumbling over Durkan’s leadership has grown noticeably in recent years. The complainers point to an alleged lack of clarity at the top. The ship is not rudderless, but some of the crew feel uncertain as to where, if anywhere, they are headed.

Such a sense of disorientation should hardly be too surprising, as the outworking of Northern politics post-Good Friday 1998 has gone in unexpected directions.

The SDLP and Ulster Unionists have been elbowed off the top by the two parties they might have expected to have marginalised. In their place Sinn Féin and the DUP, it was thought, could not have been out-manoeuvred. But they are being hit by flak from the extremes.

Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks leading to the Belfast Agreement, said he wished to bring his son to Stormont to witness normal politics on the floor of the Assembly.

Were he to attempt that now he would witness bitterness, carping, petty point-scoring and a less than cohesive Executive. He would see some wafer-thin Assembly schedules, while the big policy questions of the day remain unanswered – the moribund Shared Futurepolicy on reconciliation, stalled devolution of policing and justice, finger-stabbing over education reform and the like.

It is in this political context that the SDLP seeks its new leader and it is once again fashionable to talk up its demise.

Durkan is stepping aside citing, in part, his age. Perhaps this is a curious thing for a 49-year-old to do, especially given that Ritchie is 51 and McDonnell is 60.

Both potential successors appear to accept that the party cannot continue to live off old glories and that continued portrayal of rivals in Sinn Féin as unpardonable Provos misses the point with a whole new generation of voters – and indeed many of the same vintage as themselves.

Both candidates have set an immediate priority of reorganising the SDLP, with “grand design politics” being spoken of in the longer term.

Both have valid credentials in this respect. Margaret Ritchie has shown organisational flair in South Down, while Dr McDonnell fashioned a remarkable Westminster victory in South Belfast long held by the Ulster Unionists.

He will offer a South Belfast-style reorganisation across the North and his knowledge of other constituencies and the local personalities will be of great use. He cajoled, sweet-talked and back-slapped his way to a convincing deputy leadership victory in 2005, replacing Bríd Rodgers, to the apparent horror of Mark Durkan. He said nothing at the time, but he didn’t have to. His facial expression spoke volumes. It was a telling response still reflected among some in the party.

There is little escaping the fact that, because of this, and whether she likes it or not, Ritchie is being seen – at least in part – as the not-Alasdair-McDonnell candidate.

His detractors portray him as divisive and clumsy and capable of great damage, therefore she ought to receive support. They further claim that she has “grown” as a politician and minister, but this often comes across as a back-handed compliment, suggesting an element of pleasant surprise.

McDonnell is offering her his backing for the deputy leadership, retention of her ministerial role and to facilitate her rise to the top after he goes in about five years.

Her apparent rejection of this hints that there is no “dream ticket” scenario.

The votes of the Durkan loyalists could be crucial. About 430 Assembly members, councillors and branch delegates will decide the leadership at February’s annual conference.

As things stand one of the two candidates is going to suffer a damaging defeat, with McDonnell standing to lose more than his rival.

For a party anxious to present itself as a re-emerging force, a fractious leadership campaign could do more harm than good.