London politician will see Irish nationalists in Ulster

The left-wing leader of London's local government said he would go to Northern Ireland to meet three hard-line Irish nationalists who were banned from seeing him in the British capital.

But Ken Livingstone, leader of the Labour Party majority in the Greater London Council, said he would probably not make the visit until next year. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, answering questions in Parliament about the recent Northern Ireland bomb blast, said the ban was based on intelligence reports linking the three Irish nationalists with past terrorist activity.