DUP blocks Michelle O'Neill from joint engagements over Drumcree protest as Robinson warns her 'arrogance will have consequences'
Gavin Robinson, pictured in September, faces calls from within his own party — including Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart, who resigned as a party officer over the dispute — to pull Emma Little-Pengelly from the Executive.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson confirmed that Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will cease all joint engagements with First Minister Michelle O'Neill, after party officers met Thursday to discuss the fallout from O'Neill's involvement in protests on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The practical consequence is that Northern Ireland will go unrepresented at Friday's National Economic Council in Glasgow, where O'Neill had been due to meet Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth to discuss the Stormont budget.
Robinson stopped short of withdrawing Little-Pengelly entirely — a step that would collapse the Stormont Executive — but refused to rule it out.
O'Neill branded the move a 'reactive stunt, driven by the DUP's own internal pressures and electoral problems' and called it 'reckless and irresponsible'.
DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart broke openly with her leadership in a five-page letter to colleagues, warning there can be no 'clever halfway house' and that O'Neill must be removed outright.
