Warning over SDLP executive role

Margaret Ritchie said she would not be bullied

Margaret Ritchie has said if she is prevented from doing her ministerial job the SDLP may have to reconsider its participation on the NI Executive.

The Social Development Minister said there had been "difficult scenes" during executive talks on her proposals for tackling fuel poverty.

But she said that she will not be "bullied" by other ministers.

"The SDLP is committed to doing a job in government," she told Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme.

"And we're also committed to doing a job on the floor of the assembly - holding the executive to account," she said.

"But if there comes a time when executive colleagues and others deliberately stop me from delivering, then that will give my party an opportunity, and myself, to consider our role in government, but at this particular point we haven't reached that point - we're still in government."

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