CARLA LOCKHART RESIGNS DUP PARTY OFFICER POST

DUP MP Carla Lockhart has resigned as a party officer, party leader Gavin Robinson confirmed on Thursday. The Upper Bann MP and Robinson disagree over whether the DUP should withdraw deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Executive. Lockhart has argued that removing Little-Pengelly would automatically remove Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill from the joint office they lead. Robinson said the DUP had reached an “agreed position” to keep Little-Pengelly in the Executive.

Lockhart said the DUP should no longer serve alongside O’Neill after she took part in an allegedly unlawful protest on Garvaghy Road in Portadown last month. The unnotified protest formed part of efforts to stop an Orange Order parade travelling down the predominantly nationalist road. O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s vice president, attended a Belfast police station on Wednesday for an arranged interview with officers investigating the protest. Lockhart has repeatedly called for O’Neill’s removal from office.

Lockhart said she resigned on Thursday afternoon from the party officers, a small decision-making body she had belonged to for five years. She said she had not intended to make the resignation public and believed someone within the DUP had leaked it to the media. “I believe in standing true to my principles,” she said. Asked about the resignation on BBC NI’s The View on Thursday evening, Robinson said: “I’m sorry to see that it’s occurred.” He said he had appointed Lockhart to the party officers and that she remained “a key part of our team.”