DUP leader Gavin Robinson is 'very sorry' Carla Lockhart has quit but still refuses to force O'Neill from office

Carla Lockhart, 41, the Upper Bann MP who built a majority of more than 7,000 at the 2024 election, quit the DUP on Monday after the party refused to withdraw Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly — a move that would have automatically forced Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill from the joint office. Her departure leaves the DUP with just four Westminster MPs, down from a peak of ten in 2017, and strips the party of its only female MP. Robinson told Good Morning Ulster that the row was over strategy, not sentiment, insisting Northern Ireland needs a functioning government and a budget to be agreed on Thursday.

Lockhart published an eight-page vision for unionist unity alongside her resignation, framing her exit as a principled stand rather than a wrecking move.

Westminster's green benches now carry five distinct brands of unionism — the DUP, Ulster Unionist Party, Traditional Unionist Voice, and two independents — deepening fears of a permanently splintered movement.

'I cannot stand idly by whilst Sinn Féin wilfully ignores the rule of law,' Lockhart wrote, warning the promised 'profound consequences' had FAILED to materialise.