New SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell came out fighting for |the future of his party at its |annual conference yesterday, but warned that the Good Friday Agreement will not deliver any further political progress.

Mr McDonnell took the leadership position vacated by Margaret Ritchie over favourite Patsy |McGlone, Environment Minister Alex Attwood and young gun Conall McDevitt.

Clearly emotional after his victory, and with a tear in his eye, he described the moment as the proudest in his political life.

Acknowledging the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables depiction of him as a “bull in a china shop”, |the South Belfast MP said there are things he wants to smash|— including the “myths” that the SDLP’s fate is already “settled |and sealed”, and that the |DUP and Sinn Fein are electorally invincible.

In his first speech as leader, less than 24 hours after being elected, he gave himself just 100 days to begin to turn the party around. The internal revamp will then feed into a special “renewal” conference early in the new year building up to the next Assembly elections, which he said would be a “turning point” for the party.

Describing the next three months as “absolutely crucial”, Mr McDonnell pledged to set up a “task force” to develop a new organisational structure, tackle the party’s financial pressures, and hold a separate, special conference on the economy.

In a trenchant attack, he argued the DUP and Sinn Fein have “torn the heart and spirit” out of the 1998 Agreement — which the SDLP was instrumental in creating — and recast it in their own “sectarian” image.

“We must now face up to the reality that the Agreement has run out of road,” he said.

“In the hands of the DUP and Sinn Fein it may provide basic political stability, but it will not deliver the real political progress that we want to achieve.”

Warning of widespread cuts ahead, he argued that by implementing Budget reductions imposed by the UK Government, the DUP and Sinn Fein were “little more than bailiffs for the absentee landlords in the Treasury”.

It was a strong speech, but uncharacteristically poorly delivered. McDonnell is an able orator, but was decidedly off-form. Insiders said his decision

not to wear glasses meant he could not read the autocue and his repeated call to “turn off the lights” deflected from the written content, at times giving the appearance of waffle rather than substance.

Yet in a particularly significant section he launched a vicious attack on Sinn Fein and promised that in making the case for a united Ireland he did not seek to “turn unionists into nationalists.”

He argued that in the next few years there will be a great effort by republicans seeking to “revise and rewrite and airbrush” recent history “to sweep murder and mayhem” under the carpet, but that it would not succeed.

Pointing to the SDLP policy promise that unionists would be guaranteed the same rights and protections in a “new Ireland” that nationalists had sought in Northern Ireland, he insisted unionism would not be forced “in any direction they do not want to go”. Mr McDonnell said the party’s failure to attract more votes was “not an incurable condition” — but the party did not have years to debate its electoral performance.

“We need to hit the ground running,” he said.

“Unless we quickly and clearly demonstrate to the public that we have the will and ability to recover... our existing level of support will begin to drift away by the middle of next year.”

Factfile

Support for each candidate in the first round

ATTWOOD 46, McDEVITT 105, McDONNELL 127, McGLONE 70

Subsequent counts

Attwood excluded

McDEVITT 131, McDONNELL 140, McGLONE 76

McGlone excluded

McDEVITT 152, McDONNELL 188

The last bookies odds available before polling: McGlone 11/8 favourite, followed by Alasdair McDonnell on 2/1, Alex Attwood on 11/4 and Conal McDevitt on 7/2.