Carla Lockhart expected to stand down next week - as Gavin Robinson says DUP's position has been decided
It is understood Carla Lockhart will call time on her DUP career early next week, despite party leader Gavin Robinson making clear he would prefer that she stayed.
The Upper Bann MP has been on a collision course with the party in recent weeks, insisting that it should exercise its power to remove Michelle O'Neill as first minister over her actions at the height of the Drumcree dispute.
However, the DUP has said it will not collapse the Executive – saying that would punish the people of Northern Ireland and not Sinn Féin.
Leader Gavin Robinson says he does not want to see Carla Lockhart go – but that the “fundamental position of the Democratic Unionist Party has been decided.”
It is believed she will initially sit as an independent unionist MP, but there has been some speculation about a future move to the TUV.
Ms Lockhart’s intentions were made clear in an explosive letter to colleagues on Thursday, sent in advance of a crunch meeting of party officers to decide future policy.
Senior figures were reported to have had a choice between removing the DUP deputy first minister, and by extension Ms O’Neill, or to cancel joint engagements and deploying other measures short of withdrawing from the joint office.
However, the Upper Bann MP told colleagues that she cannot be party to any attempt to “carve out some clever half-way house” and “gaslight those who have trusted us”.
She said her disagreement with leader Gavin Robinson “is a matter of legitimate principled disagreement and is not personal in any way” – but criticised the response within the party to the concerns she had raised.
The Upper Bann MP said she had been “honest about the limitations of the political consequences we can deliver”.
“I wish we could remove every single one of the Sinn Fein lawbreakers, both Ministers and MLAs, but we legally cannot do so.
“But we can remove Michelle O'Neill. In my view for too long this party has tried to smudge the lines, and on occasions (such as with the Irish Sea border), actively misled those who trust us.
“To my shame, I publicly for the most part said nothing, and went along with it. But I am not prepared to do it anymore, and nor should anyone else”, she said.
On Friday morning, Mr Robinson was asked whether he expected Ms Lockhart to quit the DUP.
“Well, I hope that’s not the case,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I mean all of us share the same anger toward Michelle O’Neill. All of us want to see political sanction. We all share the same view that there needs to be political sanction for the behaviour of Michelle O’Neill. We share the same sentiment.”
Mr Robinson said his party was pressing the UK Government to bring forward legislation that would introduce more robust sanctions for Stormont ministers who breach their pledge of office to uphold the rule of law.
He said he would not criticise Ms Lockhart.
“I understand entirely the position that she has, and I don’t want to see her go,” he said.
Earlier this month Michelle O’Neill attended a police interview over her involvement in protests on the Garvaghy Road blocking an Orange Order parade. The first minister said it was “always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road”.