Carla Lockhart to outline future with DUP ‘early next week’ amid speculation

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has said she will “set out the path ahead early next week” amid speculation she will walk away from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said he hopes Ms Lockhart will not quit the party over a dispute with the leadership on the future of the Stormont Executive in response to the Drumcree parading controversy.

She had called on her party to withdraw its deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from her office – a move that would automatically force Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill from her role.

Ms Lockhart argues Ms O’Neill can no longer serve as First Minister because of her participation in an allegedly unlawful protest against the Orange Order Drumcree parade in Portadown last month.

Ms O’Neill and several of her party colleagues are being investigated by police for taking part in the protest on the Garvaghy Road that was staged to prevent the parade proceeding through the predominantly nationalist area.

The DUP has stopped short of pulling Ms Little-Pengelly out of her role but on Thursday announced she would no longer participate in joint engagements with Ms O’Neill.

Mr Robinson said Ms Little-Pengelly will also not be giving permission for Ms O’Neill to fulfil engagements on her own in the role of First Minister.

However, Ms Lockhart said on Friday this “falls far short” of what she believes “the vast majority of unionists want”.

The MP said she was seeking “profound consequences” for Ms O’Neill’s participation in the protest, including her removal from office.

In a statement on Facebook, she said: “There is much interest in me and my future. But this has never been about me. It has always been a point of principle.”

Ms Lockhart, who quit as a member of the party’s main strategy-making body last week over the issue, encouraged the public to contact their DUP MLAs to tell them “how let down you feel” as she called for a “moment to reignite a fire” within unionism.

She added: “Whatever comes next, I will set out the path ahead early next week. My principles and my commitment to the people who put me here will guide that path.

“I will continue to represent Upper Bann and serve my constituents with every bit of the energy, commitment and vigour I always have.

“Rest assured, I am not going away.”

Meanwhile, the practical outworking of the DUP’s move means Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly did not travel to an economic event in Glasgow on Friday.

Stormont’s leaders were scheduled to meet Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were also due to hold a separate meeting with Mr Burnham in Glasgow to discuss the ongoing impasse over the lack of a Stormont budget for the current financial year.

Speaking at the beginning of the meeting in Scotland, Mr Burnham expressed disappointment that Stormont’s leaders were not in attendance.

“It’s a shame that we do not have colleagues from Northern Ireland, but obviously we’re working with them on the same agenda and that agenda being how do we get growth up to where we all want it to be,” he said.

On Friday morning Mr Robinson was asked whether he expected Ms Lockhart to quit the DUP.

“Well, I hope that’s not the case,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

“I mean all of us share the same anger toward Michelle O’Neill. All of us want to see political sanction.”

Mr Robinson said his party was pressing the UK Government to bring forward legislation that would introduce more robust sanctions for Stormont ministers who breach their pledge of office to uphold the rule of law.

He said he would not criticise Ms Lockhart.

“I understand entirely the position that she has, and I don’t want to see her go,” he said.

The DUP blocking strategy will prevent a planned meeting between Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly and Irish President Catherine Connolly at her official residence at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin.

Ms O’Neill will also not be able to attend Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph in Belfast as First Minister.

Noting the absence of Stormont’s leaders from Friday’s economic event in Scotland, Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard accused the DUP of engaging in a “pathetic, petulant and damaging stunt”.

He told Radio Ulster: “It’s not damaging to Michelle O’Neill or Sinn Féin – it harms our local businesses, it harms our workers looking for better jobs, and it frustrates families crying out for investment in public services.

“The British Prime Minister is in that room, the First Minister of Scotland is in that room, the First Minister of Wales is in that room. Yet the north’s chair is empty and has been sacrificed to reckless economic vandalism.”

He said the move was “driven entirely” by DUP concerns over the outcome of next year’s Assembly election.

Withdrawing Ms Little-Pengelly from her post would automatically force Ms O’Neill from office because of the joint nature of the powersharing structures in Northern Ireland.

Such a step would effectively collapse the devolved administration in Belfast as the Executive could no longer meet to make significant decisions.

However, individual departmental ministers would remain in post for up to six months and the Northern Ireland Assembly could continue to sit.

The furore is playing out amid the customary political manoeuvring that takes place at Stormont ahead of an Assembly election. The next poll is currently due to be held in May.

A decision by the Parades Commission adjudication body to allow the Orange Order to parade down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years prompted a two-week stand-off at the site of what was a notorious parading flashpoint during the Troubles.

The parade was ultimately unable to take place because of significant numbers of protesters on the Garvaghy Road, leading Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant to overturn the commission’s decision and ban the procession. His decision was upheld by a High Court judge on Wednesday.

Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, protests must be notified to, and approved by, the Parades Commission.

Police investigating the unnotified Garvaghy Road protest, which was staged on the day the Drumcree parade was meant to proceed on September 27, have said invitations to attend interviews were sent to individuals “reasonably suspected of committing offences”.