Britainupdated 1h ago2 min read
Archive photo · 24 July 2024Carla Lockhart Quits DUP Over Drumcree Row, Calls To Remove Michelle O'Neill
“DUP leader Gavin Robin, speaking to reporters this evening, accused Lockhart of ‘arrogance’.”
“Lockhart said she was leaving the DUP on a ‘point of principle’ and would continue in the House of Commons as an independent unionist.”
Photo: ©House of Commons / UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0 · Cropped for layout
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Carla Lockhart quits the DUP over its handling of the Drumcree dispute She demanded Michelle O'Neill be removed as First Minister for attending the Garvaghy Road protest
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Lockhart quits DUP
Carla Lockhart quit the Democratic Unionist Party in the Drumcree row, leaving the Upper Bann MP to continue in the House of Commons as an independent unionist. Lockhart said she was leaving on a "point of principle" and told colleagues that the "only one credible option" was to withdraw Stormont's deputy first minister to force First Minister Michelle O'Neill from their joint office. Gavin Robinson stopped short of Lockhart's call to force O'Neill from office, and the DUP instead announced it would block official engagements involving O'Neill in response to the fallout.
Sinn Féin vice-president defended her involvement in the protests on Garvaghy Road by saying it was the "right thing to do," while police interviewed O'Neill and several other senior Sinn Féin figures investigating the demonstrations. The DUP said it regretted Lockhart's decision and argued that "The only winner out of further divisions within unionism is Sinn Féin."
Protests and police focus
Unionist anger centered on Sinn Féin's involvement in protests on Garvaghy Road, which blocked a contentious Orange Order parade from passing along the mainly nationalist street in Portadown, County Armagh. Police interviewed O'Neill and several other senior Sinn Féin figures investigating the demonstrations, and unionists accused the party of acting unlawfully. Lockhart warned that she "cannot stand idly by whilst Sinn Féin wilfully ignores the rule of law" and said the promised "profound consequences" had failed to materialise.
The Irish Times said Lockhart objected to O'Neill's involvement alongside other Sinn Féin members in the Garvaghy Road protest that blocked Orangemen from walking down the mainly nationalist route from Drumcree church for the first time in 28 years. The Journal reported that DUP leader Gavin Robin accused Lockhart of "arrogance" and said it cannot be the case that every time a lawmaker in Northern Ireland "breaks the law" it can "bring down the institutions."
What happens next
The DUP said it would not collapse the Northern Ireland Executive, arguing that doing so would punish the people of Northern Ireland and not Sinn Féin. Lockhart's resignation left the DUP with four MPs in the House of Commons, compared with 10 in 2017, while Sinn Féin has seven abstentionist MPs. Lockhart set out that she would continue to work in Westminster and said she would "look forward to working with all shades of unionism, elected or not, to advance the cause we love".
Jonathan Buckley MLA warned that pulling Emma Little Pengelly out of the Executive could "rapidly escalate towards the complete collapse" of the Northern Ireland government. The BBC said the party had lost an MP from the DUP benches leaving just four for a party which once boasted ten members of parliament, and it said the DUP had lost seats in the last two elections and was now losing seats in between elections.