THE SDLP will only join the next Stormont government if its demands for spending on education and redressing regional underinvestment are met, leader Colum Eastwood has said.
Speaking at the party's annual conference in Derry, the Foyle MLA spelt out the red line issues that will determine whether the SDLP joins a new slimline executive after May 5's election.
The event in St Columb's Hall was the party's second conference in six months. Last November's event saw Mr Eastwood elected leader, and he decided to break with long-standing tradition by convening the next annual get-together in spring rather than autumn.
Less than two months out from an assembly election in which the SDLP will be defending 14 Stormont seats, the new leader said his party's decision in the past to put the "national interest" ahead of its own needs had seen it "loan others some of our vote" – a reference to Sinn Féin superseding the SDLP at the polls in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Those days are now over," Mr Eastwood said.
"Let it be known conference here tonight, from this moment on the SDLP is calling in that loan."
The Foyle MLA was also defiant in the face of an electoral challenge on his doorstep from Sinn Féin, who are running Martin McGuinness in Mr Eastwood's own constituency in a bid to break the SDLP's historical dominance in Derry and the north west.
"The joint first minister Martin McGuinness has announced he is coming back into Derry in the expectation that he will be gifted three seats," he said.
"Well, Martin should take a look and see what happened recently in Donegal – three into two won’t go – and in a few short weeks’ time, Derry will tell them the same."
Mr Eastwood claimed May’s assembly election will be a referendum on the DUP and Sinn Féin's record in control of Stormont's ruling executive.
He said the SDLP would no longer join the government without signing up to a programme for government, as it had done in the past.
"Here tonight I want to give some concrete assurances – in any upcoming programme for government we’ll make secured and deliverable funding for the A5 dual carriageway, A6 dual carriageway and an expanded university at Magee key priorities before we join any government."
The next policy blueprint needed to include a "commitment to distribute investment in jobs, infrastructure and education across all of Northern Ireland, not just parts of Belfast and its suburbs".
"We will stop this new partitioning of the north, where west Belfast receives just over one per cent of total available assistance from Invest Northern Ireland," he said.
Mr Eastwood also criticised the plan to cut corporation tax while reducing investment in higher education and skills, adding that this too would need to be addressed if his party was to join the next government.
In reiterating his party's commitment to a united Ireland, the Foyle MLA said the SDLP had a "selfish and strategic interest in making Northern Ireland work".
"Although many have been slow to grasp the significance of that statement, people should understand that this is a major departure for northern nationalism," he said.
"Whilst working to build a new north, we are also strategically building our broader nationalist vision."
