A DUP MLA has publicly called for the removal of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as First Minister, breaking ranks with the party leadership.
Diane Forsythe, MLA for South Down, has joined Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart in urging her party to withdraw deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the Stormont Executive. Because of the joint nature of Northern Ireland’s powersharing structures, such a move would automatically force Ms O’Neill from her post.
Potential collapse of the Executive
Withdrawing Ms Little-Pengelly would effectively collapse the devolved administration in Belfast. Other individual departmental ministers would remain in post, and the Northern Ireland Assembly could continue to sit for a further six months.
Ms Lockhart believes the party should no longer serve alongside Ms O’Neill after the Sinn Féin vice president took part in an allegedly unlawful protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown last month. The protest was part of efforts to stop a contentious Orange Order parade proceeding down the predominantly nationalist road.
Leadership disagreement
DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said the party had come to an “agreed position” not to pull Ms Little-Pengelly out, arguing that imploding the Executive would damage unionism. Ms Lockhart resigned as a DUP party officer last week over the difference of opinion with the leadership.
Ms Forsythe has now joined Ms Lockhart in publicly disagreeing with Mr Robinson’s stance. “The overwhelming majority of Unionist people believe Michelle O’Neill should not be First Minister of Northern Ireland,” Ms Forsythe wrote on social media.
“The anger felt towards her across Northern Ireland is immense and I strongly share in that anger.”
She added: “It is my view that Michelle O’Neill should be removed from office. The Assembly and other Ministerial Offices would continue until the next election.”
Ms Forsythe said that in the absence of that “meaningful action”, her party colleague Ms Little-Pengelly should stop participating in joint engagements with the First Minister.
Police investigation and response
Ms O’Neill attended a police station in Belfast last week for an arranged interview with officers investigating the unnotified protest. Arriving at Musgrave Street PSNI station, Ms O’Neill made clear she would not be resigning as First Minister if she was prosecuted. “It was always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road,” she told reporters.
Several other high-profile Sinn Féin politicians, including party president Mary Lou McDonald, have also attended police interviews about their participation in the protest. Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, protests must be notified to, and approved by, the Parades Commission adjudication body.
Police investigating the Garvaghy Road protest, staged on the day the Drumcree parade was meant to proceed, have said invitations to attend interviews were sent to individuals “reasonably suspected of committing offences”.
A Parades Commission decision to allow the Orange Order parade to proceed down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years prompted a two-week stand-off at the site. The parade was ultimately unable to take place because of significant numbers of protesters on the Garvaghy Road, leading Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant to overturn the commission’s decision and ban the procession.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has previously made it clear there would be “consequences” for those found to have broken the law.
On Monday, Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins told reporters that Ms O’Neill was “going nowhere”. “The people decided who the First Minister of the north is and that’s the way that will remain,” she said. “Carla Lockhart and whoever else can say what they want, but the facts remain democracy is who elects the First Minister. Michelle O’Neill is going absolutely nowhere.”
Ms Kimmins also confirmed that she has received a letter from police inviting her for interview in the Drumcree investigation. She declined to say when she will attend that interview but added she will co-operate with the PSNI as required.
In her social media post on Monday evening, Ms Forsythe said statements from Sinn Féin representatives claiming Ms O’Neill was going nowhere were “full of arrogance and defiance, and have infuriated my constituents further”.
