SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood Speaks to Belfast Live

Whats going wrong under your leadership columnist would sdlp leader thank you very much for speaking to Belfast live firstly to ask you about last year's Assembly election results that the sdlp Lost several seats in the Assembly election in May last year dropping from third to fifth largest party at the assembly and polling since then does suggest that support for the sdlp has dipped even further so what's going wrong under your leadership well I wouldn't pay too much attention to those particular pools given how wrong they were before the last election but look we know we're in a difficult place the political context is very difficult for us of course in the last election um Jeffrey Donaldson told people that we couldn't have announced this first Minister and people responded and that is that is still an issue that hasn't been resolved that mandate hasn't been allowed to be fulfilled so I think that is where people are at right now but that's a very temporary position I'm very confident way that this weekend at our conference we're going to set out a new mission for the sdlp which is about building a movement for Indiana doing the hard yards to convince people that the future is best placed within a new Ireland and I think the sdlp actually is best place to make those make those arguments sin fame will do their work and that's fine but they can't reach under the communities that we can reach into they can't convince the unconvinced and Alliance of course won't take part because they don't seem to have a view on the future of the island and that's for them to explain but we have a very clear role now moving beyond brexit moving into the conversation about the future of the Constitution and with a clear Rule and being the convincers that the can of Ireland that we want to see is based on reconciliation that we want to bring people with us and I think frankly if an sdlp didn't exist you'd have to invent more how are you going to How are you going to win back voters win back voters that are drifting both towards Sinn Fein and their party well I mean first of all I'm involved in a long-term plan we have elections you know every year more than one sometimes in this place but we're putting forward a good set of candidates very uh you know good group of people very talented who work very hard on the ground and I think they will win over voters on their own uh never mind the fact that we're going to sell a very positive message about the future actually that politics has changed that brexit has changed everything that no we need to move under this next phase of Irish politics and the sdlp are key in terms of that conversation now looking at Council Why are rates increases matters sdlp voted against an almost eight percent Council rates increase in Belfast but in Derry and strabane Council the sdlp joined with other parties in supporting an almost eight percent rates increase so why are rates increases okay during the cost of living crisis in Derry in your constituency but unacceptable in Belfast well of course we didn't want the council rate increases anywhere but this isn't you know this isn't a big ideological debate consoles have their own discrete budgets and their own discrete issues um and you know many of these issues are actually dealt with um elsewhere so people's wages have gone up unrightly so they have to be paid for uh by councils in fact Dairy and Savannah Council largely because it's a much poorer area tends to do more for you know for repairs and has got the rate the grass Ridge support graft has been cut to shreds um by Stormwind and they've been left then I haven't put that burden on the repairs when they didn't actually want to but sometimes you just have to make the books balance and you can't just put your fingers in your ears and pretend um just because you want it to be this way it's going to be this way so they have to be responsible as well and I think in every single country that we were involved in we made very very hard decisions we tried very hard as well to keep the rates as low as possible it's a very difficult funding environment right now for local consoles it shouldn't be the burden shouldn't be placed on repairs but because of the budget set by not dealt with by storm and it opens up by the British government then you know we have to be in that situation now in Carl White Belfast Carl white of North Belfast counselor who was also formerly the stlp's political director he has circulated leaflets to households criticizing the rates increase in the city but in Dairy and straban kind so you have your representatives defending a rates increase arguing that a rates freeze would have led to severe job losses so which is correct well there are two different issues because they're two different clinicals with two different budgets two different spanning plans two different uh you know numbers of staff so you know it isn't like what like there are two very discreet issues put it this way it's in every single Council that we've represented us we wanted no increase at all but sometimes that's just not possible and you have to make a book spouse and we're a responsible political party we'll do whatever we can to look after the most vulnerable but we'll also be responsible and we'll also not be walking away from our responsibilities of making decisions Council Election now looking ahead to the council election in May stlp sources told the Belfast Telegraph that the party could lose up to 25 seats so how many seats do you think the party will lose well first of all working on this end of this election to try and win seats and gain more support um I don't recognize I don't know how anyone has come up with that figure we're working very hard across all the different constituencies I think we're going to do well actually and we're announcing good new candidates and you'll see some more of that in the coming days and I think people will be very happy with the slit account list that we have and people will be surprised the result that we get New Ireland Commission now in 2020 the sclp announced plans to create the New Ireland commission which is a Civic Forum to discuss the future of constitutional Arrangements on the island of Ireland it launched its first panel in 2021 but nothing has really been produced apart from a 12-page document outlining a very broad set of six core principles so why has the commission achieved so little well I don't know why you would say that because we were very clear at the outset that we were going to engage in very private conversations with people who didn't want to have public conversations about this when I hear all the time people saying that unions aren't going to engage in the conversation about the future of the island well I can tell you for a fact it's not true because we've been engaging with us over a period of 18 months of quiet conversations we have now moved it into the public phase you're seeing um you're seeing that happening very publicly where we're getting people coming to meetings from very different backgrounds and telling us what they think that's the work that we're engaged in because we really believe if we're seriously building the case for United Ireland we have to bring people with us we have to understand what their fears are what their concerns are and that's why we've been doing it this way I mean we could have uh you know huge public rallies and trumpet them all around the place but we actually want to win in the end and we want to bring people with us that's the mission of the sdlp that's what we're engaged in and I think you'll see more and more activity now that we've moved on to the public phase the Public Meetings commission held its first public meeting in February a meeting of young people in North Belfast but it wasn't advertised publicly and no press were invited so is a meeting public if you don't tell anyone about it I don't really understand uh that line of question we invited a group of people to come along uh to meet um with the commission and they were you know young people from across the political debate and that was done very deliberately we'll do those kind of meetings will they publicly we do all different kinds of meetings that's there's nobody there's no big hidden thing here we're very determined to have meetings and conversations right across this island we've already met with all the major political parties in the South we've asked are asking for me all the major political parties up here we will we're engaging with the governments we are going to engage in the most meaningful way possible we're not playing at this we're very serious this is the new mission of the sdlp it is the work that I have absolutely committed to and it's to work with this party is going to be focused on from now through the next decade Irish Labour Party Irish labor leader Ivan abachik says there have been extensive discussions with the sdlp on collaboration and she has not ruled out a future merger so can you relate a future merger with the Irish labor party look we're not interested in in mergers we're interested in the sdlp's ability actually to reach out beyond our own base to speak to political parties that maybe some other parties can't speak to in the same way to build a broad as possible base for the case for a New Ireland that's at Warren Gates and we also were very good actually at reaching out beyond our own political base if you look at the transfers that we're going to get in this election we get votes and transfers from people from a universe background sometimes we're derated for that on Twitter but it's going to come in pretty handy when we have a conversation about a new year and a bit look we work with all political parties we work very well with various labor of course because we're both members of the party of European sofas um but there's no discussion about a manager or anything and can you confirm once and for all for people is the formal partnership between finna fall and the sdlp dead it's a funny way to describe it I mean what we did we worked on a policy partnership uh within a fall and we ended up having uh the shared Island unit which is good something like 2 billion euros in the bank account to be spent on delivering projects for people because you know I know the media are obsessed with this and obsessed with issues or mergers and everything else what we're focused on really is delivery for people and I think that'll be a huge Legacy of that project that we're involved in we have a very good relationship within four I have a very good personal relationship uh with the Thomas and Milo Martin we continue to have that but we believe no in this next phase of Irish politics this is about being able to reach out beyond our own party and into as many political parties as possible that's a sort of a skill that the sdlp is uniquely placed uh to use and I think that's what we're going to do and finally I've asked you about the Electoral pressures that the sclp is facing as well as polling results so is the upcoming sdlp annual conference your last as party leader no absolutely not