Second DUP politician calls for collapse of Stormont to force Michelle O’Neill out

A DUP MLA has broken ranks with the party leadership to call for the removal of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as First Minister. Diane Forsythe has joined Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart in urging her party to withdraw deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the Stormont Executive, a move that would automatically force O’Neill from her post due to the joint nature of the powersharing structures in Northern Ireland. Such a step would effectively collapse the devolved administration in Belfast, albeit other individual departmental ministers would remain in post and the Northern Ireland Assembly could continue to sit for a further six months.

Lockhart believes the party should no longer serve alongside O’Neill after the Sinn Féin vice president took part in an allegedly unlawful protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown last month as part of efforts to stop a contentious Orange Order parade proceeding down the predominantly nationalist road. DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said his party had come to an “agreed position” not to pull Little-Pengelly out, arguing that imploding the Executive would damage unionism.

Lockhart resigned as a DUP party officer last week over the difference of opinion with the leadership. South Down MLA Forsythe has now joined Lockhart in publicly disagreeing with Robinson’s stance. “The overwhelming majority of Unionist people believe Michelle O’Neill should not be First Minister of Northern Ireland,” Forsythe wrote on social media. “The anger felt towards her across Northern Ireland is immense and I strongly share in that anger.”

She added: “It is my view that Michelle O’Neill should be removed from office. The Assembly and other Ministerial Offices would continue until the next election.” Forsythe said in the absence of that “meaningful action”, her party colleague Little-Pengelly should stop participating in joint engagements with the First Minister. O’Neill attended a police station in Belfast last week for an arranged interview with officers investigating the unnotified protest.

Arriving at Musgrave Street PSNI station, O’Neill made clear she would not be resigning as First Minister if she was prosecuted. “It was always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road,” she told reporters. Several other high-profile Sinn Féin politicians, including party president Mary Lou McDonald, have also attended police interviews about their participation in the protest. Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, protests must be notified to, and approved by, the Parades Commission adjudication body.

Police investigating the Garvaghy Road protest, which was staged on the day the Drumcree parade was meant to proceed, have said invitations to attend interviews were sent to individuals “reasonably suspected of committing offences”. A Parades Commission decision to allow the Orange Order parade to proceed 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 Chris Bryant to overturn the commission’s decision and ban the procession. PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has previously made it clear there would be “consequences” for those found to have broken the law. On Monday, Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins told reporters that O’Neill was “going nowhere”.

“The people decided who the First Minister of the North is and that’s the way that will remain,” she said. “Carla Lockhart and whoever else can say what they want, but the facts remain democracy is who elects the First Minister. Michelle O’Neill is going absolutely nowhere.” - PA