{"id":22618,"date":"2026-04-26T19:51:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T19:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T19:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T19:51:49","slug":"breaking-paul-doherty-quits-sdlp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22618\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Paul Doherty quits SDLP"},"content":{"rendered":"

PAUL Doherty has sensationally quit the SDLP.<\/p>\n

In a social media post this afternoon the Belfast councillor, who is currently deputy Lord Mayor, announced that he has left the party. It comes after SDLP councillors abstained from a vote on Thursday evening at a specially convened meeting at City Hall where councillors voted through a DUP motion to reconsider a decision to close a planning enforcement investigation over a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Twinbrook.<\/a><\/p>\n

The statue was unveiled in May last year beside the Republican Garden on Gardenmore Road in Twinbrook. Bobby Sands, who was from the area, was elected MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone just prior to his death on hunger-strike while in prison in Long Kesh in May 1981.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The DUP motion passed with 27 votes for, 22 against and three no votes from the Green Party. The SDLP members did not vote.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the vote there has been a backlash against the SDLP on social media.<\/p>\n

Posting on Facebook this afternoon Cllr Doherty said: “I have left the SDLP with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

“My focus will remain on the ground in my community, representing the people of West Belfast.<\/p>\n

“For clarity, I was not at the hastily arranged Belfast City Council meeting this week \u2013 contrary to some posts directed at me. I was dealing with an emerging issue in the community and therefore did not have the opportunity to vote against the DUP motion \u2013 which I would have done. Anyone suggesting otherwise is simply trying to score cheap political points.<\/p>\n

“As someone from West Belfast, I know the Bobby Sands statue in Twinbrook holds real significance for people in our community and beyond. People should be fully entitled to remember him in this way, and I fully support that. Shame on the DUP and others for turning this into a political stunt.<\/p>\n

“My focus remains, as always on the people of my community. If anyone would like to engage further on this directly, you know where I am.”<\/p>\n

Do you have something to say on this issue? If so, submit a letter for publication to Conor McParland at c.mcparland@belfastmedia.com<\/a> or write to Editor Anthony Neeson at Belfast Media Group 43-47 Falls Road, Belfast BT12 4PD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PAUL Doherty has sensationally quit the SDLP. In a social media post this afternoon the Belfast councillor, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10225,10228,10229,1183,18,10223,10226,10224,3930,10227,771,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-22618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-andersonstown-news","9":"tag-andytown-news","10":"tag-belfast-media-group","11":"tag-comment","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-news-belfast","14":"tag-north-belfast-news","15":"tag-north-of-ireland","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-south-belfast-news","18":"tag-sport","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116472757793068814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}