So (as well as losing their £120,000 Assembly grant), following today’s decision in the Commons Sinn Féin MPs will lose around £400,000 in Westminster allowances over the next 12 months – that’s £400,000 that, unlike the Assembly grant, they did receive last year.According to the BBC report
A cross-party motion to permanently evict the MPs from their Westminster offices was defeated by 358 to 170.
While the various parties had different views on the sanctions –
Speaking in the debate, Mr Murphy said the government motion “made plain parliament’s disapproval of criminality” while locking all the main parties in to the “democratic path”.
DUP leader Ian Paisley asked how the government could reconcile the motion with the “strong line it was taking on terrorism” in the Bill currently being debated in parliament.
UUP leader David Trimble said that his party had “lukewarm support” for the government motion but would vote for the stronger amendments.
The SDLP’s Seamus Mallon told the chamber that he would not vote for the motion or amendments because he did not want to “make martyrs” of Sinn Fein MPs.
He accused them of “hypocrisy” for taking their Westminster allowances in the first place.