BIRMINGHAM, September 30 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The UK government should devolve fiscal powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly in line with the commitments made to Scotland, following the Scottish independence referendum on September 18, Newry and Armagh parliamentarian and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Conor Murphy said Tuesday.
"We need the transfer of a full suite of fiscal powers which includes corporation tax and the tax varying powers needed to grow our economy," Murphy said at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.
Ahead of the Scottish independence referendum, the leaders of the UK's three major political parties, Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party, Ed Miliband of the Labour Party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrat party, signed a pledge promising more powers to the Scottish Parliament if Scotland voted against independence.
Murphy also called on British authorities to become "part of the solution" in ensuring that the Anglo-Irish peace process continues.
"[The British government] has frustrated investigations into state killings and the state's collusion with loyalist death squads and emboldened negative unionism by its increasing partisan pro-unionist stance," Murphy said. "It's time therefore for the British government to become part of the solution."
In 1984, the Provisional IRA narrowly avoided assassinating British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when a bomb they planted detonated at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the annual Conservative Party Conference. Five people, including Conservative MP Anthony Berry, were killed in the explosion.
This year's Conservative Party Conference is taking place in Birmingham, England, from September 28 to October 1.
