Politics

David Ford upbeat for Alliance ahead of Stormont election

He's the longest-serving leader in the assembly and has no immediate plans to relinquish that job. Ahead of the Alliance Party's weekend conference David Ford tells Political Correspondent John Manley why his party is happy with him but unhappy with Stormont

David Ford won't be putting his name forward to be justice minister after May's election. Picture by Ann McManus
David Ford won't be putting his name forward to be justice minister after May's election. Picture by Ann McManus David Ford won't be putting his name forward to be justice minister after May's election. Picture by Ann McManus

WITH May's assembly election looming, David Ford is reasonably upbeat about his party's prospects.

While keen to avoid specific figures, he believes Alliance can at least retain its eight MLAs and feels up to half a dozen seats are there for the taking.

"Eight are rock solid safe and when you look back a couple of elections that wasn’t the case," he says.

The South Antrim MLA has now been leader for 15 years and in that time has faced little internal criticism.

"I think the reason for that is because Alliance has made progress and we've been seen to be moving up and gaining influence," he says.

At 65, Mr Ford is unlikely to lead the party into another Stormont election after this one, but for the meantime is content in the top job.

"At some point in the future colleagues may come and knock my door or at some stage I may decide I've had enough, but we're not there yet."

He has, however, decided not to put his name forward for the justice minister's job that he's held since the devolution of policing and justice powers in 2010.

"It's probably one of the most difficult jobs in the executive and I've done it for six years," he says, adding that there are plenty of other people in Alliance who are capable of doing the job.

Yet he insists he will not be recommending a colleague for the job unless the other executive parties agree to continue a programme of reform.

Mr Ford appears satisfied with support for his reforms over the last mandate but is much less impressed by a lack of progress in other areas.

"We’re still getting caught up with old fashioned, petty politicking rather than providing delivery on the social and economic changes we need and on building a united community."

As an example of what he believes is the DUP and Sinn Féin's focus on short-termism, the Alliance leader cites the budget that comes into effect at the end of this month.

"We're hoping to devolve corporation tax in two years' time but the budget has nothing that prepares us for that," he says.

"There’s been a lot of promise but at the moment there's no sign of them doing the hard work that actually ensures delivery."

So does he believe Arlene Foster's leadership will lead to a change in approach?

"Clearly Arlene’s leadership signals a generational change but whether that actually makes a change in attitudes I’m not sure," he says.

Mr Ford points to the recent Justice Bill and how efforts to introduce new abortion guidelines were thwarted by the DUP's decision that a working group was needed to produced more research.

"It didn’t look like a genuine statement to me but rather evidence of a mentality that ducks the difficult issues," he says.

"I can take somebody who disagrees with me on a point of principle but what I can’t take is subterfuge which simply refused to have an examination of the issues."

Another area of disappointment for Mr Ford is the failure to get agreement on legacy issues in last year's Fresh Start agreement.

In terms of apportioning blame, he points the finger at the British and Irish governments, the DUP and Sinn Féin – because it was they "who agreed a deal which fundamentally let down victims".

"I think it was unacceptable for them to say they’ll come back and look at legacy issues later on," the Alliance leader says.

Notably, Mr Ford shares the concern of nationalists and the Irish government over the 'national security' clause in the draft legacy legislation.

"Clearly every government has national security issues but the concern we expressed on seeing the draft bill was that there seemed to be about four layers of that – which gave an indication of an unwillingness to be opened," he says.

"If I thought there was an overlaying of national security it’s not surprising other people rejected it completely."

He isn't optimistic that new institutions for dealing with the past will be in place in the near future, but insists that the Department of Justice will press the British government for money to fund Troubles' inquests.

"Failure to provide this funding is punishing the justice system for the failures of others."