Barry McElduff quits as MP for West Tyrone after Kingsmill tweet

The Sinn Féin MP Barry McElduff has stood down as MP for West Tyrone.

It follows the controversy he caused after posing with a Kingsmill branded loaf on his head on the 42nd anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.

Mr McElduff, who was last week suspended by his party for three months, said he had now decided to quit as a member of parliament for West Tyrone.

In a statement Mr McElduff said: "It is with great sadness that, after more than 30 years as an active Sinn Féin member and public representative, I am tendering my resignation as MP for West Tyrone.

"The reason I am doing so is because of the consequences of the Twitter video which has caused such controversy over the last week."

Mr McElduff reiterated his insistence that he had not meant the video as a reference to the sectarian murder of 10 protestant workmen by republican paramilitaries near the south Armagh village of Kingsmill in 1976.

He said his greatest regret was the "deep and unnecessary hurt" his video had caused the Kingsmill families.

He said: "Had I been conscious of the connection to the terrible atrocity at Kingsmill, I would certainly not have posted that tweet. I genuinely did not make that connection, not for a second did I make that connection in my mind."

"Kingsmill was wrong, unjustifiable and sectarian. It should never have happened."

Sinn Féin's suspension of Mr McElduff for three months on pay was widely criticised by unionists and also by victims of Kingsmill who believed the punishment didn't go far enough.

However the sole survivor of the attack, Alan Black, has welcomed the resignation.

Speaking to the Press Association Mr Black said: "This past week has been truly awful for me. I am just hanging by a thread."

"But I am glad he has done the right thing."

Mr Black said the fall-out from the Twitter video forced him to re-live the trauma of the attack in which he was shot 18 times.

He added: "I am going to have to take time now to heal."

"I only got involved because of the hurt and disrespect shown to my friends who died at Kingsmill, but this whole thing has taken a heavy toll."

Sinn Féin Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill said Mr McElduff informed her on Sunday of his intention to resign.

“Barry is doing so as a consequence of the unintended hurt caused to the Kingsmill victims and their loved ones by his recent social media tweet,” she said in a statement.

“Barry recognises that this controversy and his continuing role in public office is compounding the distress to the victims of Kingsmill, and again offers his profound apology to those families and to the wider victims community.”

DUP leader Arlene Foster said “it is right” that Mr McElduff resigned.

“Over the course of the last ten days Sinn Féin has failed to deal with the McElduff situation,” she said.

“By merely suspending him and continuing to pay him they compounded his disgraceful actions and demonstrated a lack of respect and compassion for the victims of Kingmill and indeed victims more widely. Sinn Féin got this badly wrong.

“Now is the time for Sinn Féin to learn the lessons from these dark events and to deal with the fact that it, and many of its individual members, continue to publicly glorify the murderous deeds of the past. This needs to end if we are to build a future based on integrity and respect. Sinn Féin has much work to do to demonstrate they have truly learned from these events.”

Relatives of those murdered in the Kingsmill massacre say they don't accept Barry McElduff's apology.

May Quinn, the sister of Bobby Walker, the van driver who was murdered at Kingsmill, said Mr McElduff’s initial apology was “very lame”.

“Everybody would have expected him to resign, do the decent thing and resign. He has been pushed to do it. I don’t think it was of his own free will.”