Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has walked out of the Democratic Unionist Party after more than 20 years, in protest at the leadership’s refusal to force First Minister Michelle O’Neill from office over the Drumcree parade dispute. Lockhart announced her resignation in an open letter on social media on Monday evening, 2 November, and will continue to sit in the House of Commons as an independent unionist.
Why Carla Lockhart quit
The split centres on a protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in September against an Orange Order Drumcree parade through the largely nationalist area. Sinn Féin’s O’Neill and several party colleagues took part and are now under police investigation over the protest, The Irish News reported.
Lockhart had urged the DUP to withdraw deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the Executive, a move that would automatically remove O’Neill too and collapse the power-sharing institutions. The party declined. Instead, it announced last week that Little-Pengelly would no longer take part in joint engagements with O’Neill, nor give consent for O’Neill to carry out First Minister engagements on her own.
For Lockhart, that did not go far enough. In her letter she said she was leaving on a point of principle and accused Sinn Féin of ignoring the rule of law. “Today I am drawing my line,” she wrote, The Irish News reported.
TheJournal.ie reported that she also cited concerns about the implementation of the Irish Sea border. She insisted she is not starting a new party, but wants to help build a grassroots movement within unionism, and published a vision document setting out her principles and plans.
DUP hits back
The DUP said it regretted the decision and thanked Lockhart for her service, but warned that further division within unionism only benefits Sinn Féin. It said it shared unionist anger at O’Neill’s actions but disagreed on how to hold her to account.
Party leader Gavin Robinson went further, accusing Lockhart of “arrogance” when speaking to reporters on Monday evening, according to TheJournal.ie. He argued that a politician in Northern Ireland should not be able to bring down the institutions every time a lawmaker breaks the law.
Allister welcomes her, O’Neill defiant
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, who himself left the DUP almost two decades ago, congratulated Lockhart and said he looked forward to working with her.
Earlier on Monday, O’Neill told the Stormont Assembly she would not be deterred from doing her job and accused the DUP of taking a supremacist approach to nationalists. Stormont Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said the First Minister was going nowhere.
What happens next
Lockhart said she would remain Upper Bann MP and put her name on the ballot at the next Westminster election. Her departure reduces the DUP’s group in the Commons and exposes the deep divisions within unionism over how to respond to the Drumcree controversy, with Carla Lockhart now positioned as a leading voice for a harder line.
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Sources: The Irish News, TheJournal.ie
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