'I don't want to see her go': DUP leader Gavin Robinson hopes Carla Lockhart will stay amid Michelle O'Neill row

Carla Lockhart, the DUP's Upper Bann MP, is expected to resign from the party after leader Gavin Robinson refused her demand to pull deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the Stormont Executive — a move that would have automatically toppled Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill. Robinson confirmed that Little-Pengelly will instead stop participating in joint engagements with O'Neill and will not grant her permission to fulfil solo First Minister duties. Lockhart told colleagues she will not be party to any attempt to 'carve out some clever half-way house'.

O'Neill is under police investigation for joining an unnotified protest that blocked an Orange Order march on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown last month.

DUP assembly members Diane Forsythe and Maurice Bradley have publicly backed Lockhart, with Bradley arguing that removing O'Neill 'would not, in itself, require the Assembly to collapse.'

A Lockhart departure would leave the DUP with just four MPs, a significant blow to a party already under pressure over its handling of the Stormont Executive.