Carla Lockhart MP said:

“The PSNI are all over the place on the IRA.

“Not content with showing they were unable to uphold the law, they are now running scared of an organisation they said does exist but isn’t a threat. Which is it?

“A senior officer wrote a briefing document acknowledging that he had taken the feelings of the IRA into account, the same IRA the Chief Constable today says still exists. Now the PSNI have come full thrust into reverse to undo the damage their honest admission has made. Smoke and mirrors and word spin will not undo the reality. The IRA hasn’t gone away.

“It was 25 years ago that the PSNI were formed as a pander to nationalists and republicans. We’ve now got to the point where they are seemingly answerable to a terror organisation which murdered over 300 members of their predecessor, the heroic Royal Ulster Constabulary.

“That the Chief Constable thought his comments made this any more palatable shows you how out of touch he is with Northern Ireland.

“I am calling on the Secretary of State and the Chief Constable to commission and publish an updated assessment of the IRA’s continued existence, its structures, activities and links to political parties. The public deserve to know what influence it retains and what action is being taken to confront it.

“The Chief Constable must also explain precisely how the feelings of the IRA influenced policing decisions, who authorised that approach and who will be held accountable.

“It is not enough to tell us the IRA still exists and then expect everyone to move on. If a terrorist organisation’s reaction is shaping how the police uphold the law, that demands action, not another carefully worded reassurance.

“The IRA must have no veto over policing, and no veto over the lawful rights of anyone in Northern Ireland.”