‘We must rise above Foster's politics of division’: Eastwood blasts First Minister over marriage equality comments

SDLP leader has described First Minister’s comments on equal marriage and five year veto on legislation as “disgraceful.”

Responding to the comments by the DUP leader, the Foyle MLA said: “We must not allow Arlene Foster to drag us down or hold us back.

“The high handed and aggressive comments which she has made betray a majoritarian view of politics that has long passed. She has gone low.

“We must all now go high and rise above the politics of division.

“Foster's disgraceful comments on equal marriage and a five year veto on legislation are a slap in the face for equality and further evidence that the DUP is clinging to the politics of veto which has set communities against each other for decades.

“The response of all those who embrace the values of respect, diversity and love should be to rise above this bad judgment, bad politics and bad approach to our future.

“We must turn our backs on the politics of fear, division and marginalisation.

“The campaign for marriage equality will continue.

“The campaign for marriage equality will grow.

“The people will more and more stand up to those, like Arlene Foster, who stand in the way of the basic recognition that the love two people of the same sex share is as equal as any other.

“The DUP leader is on the wrong side of this fight.”