What she presented as a low key bill has turned into a crisis for Arlene Foster
It is indicative of the DUP’s iron discipline that the biggest parliamentary rebellion in the party’s history involves 11 MLAs who only abstained.
The scale of yesterday’s rebellion would have been unthinkable under Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson.
On a bill which Mrs Foster presented as technical and so low-key that she did not even appear for any of the debates, she was unable to convince her MLAs to vote with her.
Facing the choice of accepting what they were told by Mrs Foster and her key advisor, Emma Little-Pengelly, or the DUP leader’s former spad Richard Bullick, it was the latter whose arguments simply trumped those of the DUP leader as far as many of her MLAs were concerned.
Last night there was fevered discussion across the DUP about the leadership.
A bill which Mrs Foster has calamitously misjudged and which she founded on a massive error has now led to simmering questions about her competence and judgment.