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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I take the hon. Lady’s sentiments, but she has in no way answered the question about the position of UUP members in Belfast who refused to sit on the Belfast district policing partnership and who withdrew in the aftermath of the Whiterock parade, but who continue to sit on the north and west Belfast parades forum with representatives of the very paramilitary organisations that carried out those violent attacks on the police service. I am simply making the point that the language in this amendment, and in some of the others that have been selected for debate later, can be used to catch and challenge parties in a way that the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) may not have considered. We can ask fundamental questions about the attitudes of the parties involved, and the US envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, did just that in respect of Unionist leaders after the Whiterock riots. He has always been very clear and firm about the need to uphold the requirements of a lawful society. He wants Sinn Fein to meet those standards, but he also reminded Unionist leaders that their commitment to those requirements was open to question. That is another reason why we cannot support the amendment, which raises a number of contradictions and difficulties.