Lord Dodds: DUP MP Carla Lockhart must not be disrespected in any way

Ms Lockhart was called up onto the stage to be presented with a bouquet of flowers, where she told the crowd, “profound consequences must mean profound consequences. Michelle O’Neill must go".

​Both the rally and Ms Lockhart were reflecting deep anger among parts of unionism at Ms O'Neill taking part in an illegal protest on the Garvaghy Road on 27 September to block the first approved Orange Parade on the road in almost 30 years.

The first minister and a range of other Sinn Fein and SDLP politicians are being interviewed by police about their participation, vehemently defending their presence.

If the DUP Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly resigns - as Ms Lockhart is pressing for - it would automatically force Ms O'Neill from office.

However it would also put the rest of the Executive Ministers on six months' notice for the crisis to be resolved.

DUP leader Gavin Mr Robinson is on record as saying he believes pulling down the Executive would play into Sinn Fein's strategy - and that the loss of local ministerial control over NI affairs would be very damaging.

Last week Ms Lockhart resigned as a DUP party officer in protest. In Saturday's News Letter DUP MP Sammy Wilson said he believed it was a "token" gesture - something she strongly rejected in response.

However in today's News Letter, former DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds struck a more more defensive tone for Ms Lockhart.

She is one of the hardest working MPs he knows, he told the News Letter, and is "passionate" about representing her constituents and the cause of the Union.

"She commands one of the strongest unionist electorate mandates in Northern Ireland," he added.

"It should be remembered that Carla’s judgement was proved correct over the Irish Sea Border deal [The Windsor Framework] which she opposed against the view of the party leadership. For all those reasons she should not be underestimated or disrespected in any way."

He also called for unionist unity: "Clearly the best thing now is to work together collectively to meet the challenges we face."

However, speaking to the Press Association in Belfast today, Sinn Fein’s Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said: “Michelle O’Neill is 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.”

Speaking on behalf of the DUP, Paul Givan MLA stuck to the party line that it is for the PSNI and UK government to act.

"Michelle O'Neill must be held accountable," he told the News Letter. "The outcome of the police investigation will be key. Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. "

The MLA also repeated the DUP call for the UK Government to introduce a new Stormont mechanism to automatically suspend ministers who break the the law, arguing that parties currently veto such moves to protect their own ministers. "No person can be the accused and the judge at the same time," he added.

​But Upper Bann Alliance MLA Eóin Tennyson expressed deep frustration. “We are now seven months into the financial year without a budget, families are struggling with the cost of living and our health service is on its knees," he told the News Letter. “People are exhausted and frustrated by this constant cycle of crisis, division, and dysfunction, which is distracting from the failure of some of our politicians to deliver.

“The public should not be punished for the psychodrama unfolding within the DUP. The institutions are not a plaything for selfish party political interests.”