SDLP leader Mark Durkan last night again called on the Ministry of Defence to expel from the British army the two soldiers convicted of murdering north Belfast teenager Peter McBride.
Speaking ahead of a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth which he will address tonight, Mr Durkan also urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to explain who misled the McBride family during their recent meeting with Northern Ireland Office minister John Spellar.
Mr Durkan said that the courts had already ruled that the decision to keep Guardsmen Fisher and Wright in the British army was illegal.
"Despite this, Adam Ingram, the MoD minister has made it clear the Guardsmen will be kept in the army," he said.
"It is outrageous for the MoD to simply ignore the judgment of the court. Worse, the treatment of the McBride family by the British government has been contemptuous and contemptible.
"First, their son Peter was murdered in cold blood. Second, the army decided to keep the murderers on even though others have been kicked out of the army for cheating on a TV programme.
"Thirdly, one of the Guardsmen has been promoted despite the fact he is a convicted murderer.
"Fourthly, it seems clear that the McBride family were misled at a recent meeting with John Spellar."
Mr Durkan said that at that meeting with Mr Spellar, "the McBride family were told that the MoD was still considering what action it intended to take in response to the court's judgment".
"Shortly afterwards both the McBride family and I received letters dated before the meeting in which MoD minister Adam Ingram made clear that the MoD planned to take absolutely no action in response to the court's judgment," he said.
"Clearly, either the MoD misled John Spellar or, more seriously, Mr Spellar misled the McBride family. Either way, the result is totally unacceptable. "Tony Blair needs to know that this case will not go away. He cannot duck or dive any longer to avoid it.
"I am calling on him to intervene personally to sort out the injustice done to the McBride family."
