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Carla Lockhart's resignation as a DUP officer exposes a party rift over refusing to topple Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill

Carla Lockhart's resignation as a DUP officer exposes a party rift over refusing to topple Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart wanted Emma Little-Pengelly to step down as Deputy First Minister, a move that would also remove O'Neill as First Minister. O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald were questioned at a Belfast police station this week over allegedly unlawful Garvaghy Road protests. Those protests blocked a permitted Orange march from Drumcree on September 27. Gavin Robinson's leadership has no appetite to collapse Stormont before the Assembly election.

Lockhart insisted it could not be 'business as usual' at Stormont.

She said the alleged 'lawbreaking has to have criminal sanctions, but also political consequences.'

The move could lead to Lockhart leaving the DUP altogether.

MoreBBC News - PoliticsDUP: Carla Lockhart resigns as party officer over strategy 'concerns'Irish TimesCarla Lockhart’s decision highlights the internal tensions within the DUPIrish Independent‘I believe in standing true to my principles’: Carla Lockhart quits as party officer in move which could lead to her leaving DUP
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