O’Toole backs Hanna to replace Eastwood as SDLP leader

The SDLP’s Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole has backed Claire Hanna to take over from party leader Colum Eastwood, after he said he would stand down.

Mr O’Toole said Ms Hanna, the South Belfast and Mid Down MP, is the best person to build a coalition for an “inclusive new Ireland”.

Mr Eastwood announced on Thursday he was standing down after nine years as leader, saying it was time for a change at the top of the party.

Mr Eastwood will formally resign at the party conference in October. He has already endorsed Ms Hanna as his potential successor.

Mr O’Toole is the party’s other high-profile figure, leading the team of eight MLAs in opposition at Stormont.

Asked if he would run for leader, he told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme: “When there is a vacancy like this, the most important thing you need to do first of all is to think about what the purpose of the role is and what the values are of the SDLP.

“We are a party committed to ending divisions on the island of Ireland, it is a pretty big mission, but it is important and it matters to us and that is what unites us and is what drives us forward.

“You need to think about who the best person is to lead that effort, whether it is politically or in a broader sense, and I think the best person to do that is Claire Hanna.

“She is an extraordinary leader, she is an extraordinary person. She is also someone who really embodies the reconciled, inclusive new Ireland that we want to build.

“I think she is the best person to broaden that support, to help us make the case and build a coalition for that kind of inclusive new Ireland that we want to see.”

Mr O’Toole rejected the suggestion that it was more difficult to lead an Irish nationalist party from Westminster than Stormont.

He said: “I think there is a natural complementarity and balance to us having a leader who is based at Westminster in this case in relation to Claire, and a leader at Stormont who is the leader of the opposition.”

He added: “I think we need to do two things. We need to hold the Executive to account, we need to provide the transformative accountability that I I think we are providing at Stormont.

“But we also need to provide a whole new vision of what an inclusive, reconciled new Ireland can be and start to talk to people who aren’t natural nationalists, who aren’t necessarily from a nationalist background who frankly are bored of those binary labels, unionist and nationalist, but who are curious about what a new Ireland would look like.”

Mr Eastwood has indicated he intends to remain an MP to contribute to the New Ireland commission he helped to establish to facilitate communications around Irish unity.