Northern Ireland's DUP said no to its MP Carla Lockhart. Will she quit the party?
MP Carla Lockhart wanted the DUP to remove First Minister Michelle O'Neill. The party said no. She will set out her next step early next week.
What happened
On Friday, in a post on social media, Lockhart said she will “set out the path ahead early next week”.
Carla Lockhart wants her party to remove Northern Ireland’s First Minister. Lockhart is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP for Upper Bann. She asked the DUP to make Emma Little-Pengelly resign as deputy First Minister, a step that would force First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin out of office too. Unionists, who want Northern Ireland to stay in the UK, are angry that Sinn Féin took part in protests that stopped an Orange Order parade in Portadown.
On the DUP chose a smaller step. Little-Pengelly will not take part in joint events with O’Neill, and O’Neill was blocked from a meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Glasgow. The same day Lockhart wrote to party colleagues that she would “take her own course” if O’Neill was not removed. The week before, she had quit the party’s ruling officer board over the same issue.
On Lockhart said she will set out her path early next week and will keep representing Upper Bann. DUP leader Gavin Robinson said he “hopes” she will not leave, and called the decision by DUP assembly members unanimous. The Belfast Telegraph reported that she is expected to resign from the party. Assembly member Diane Forsythe has backed her demand.
If Lockhart leaves, the DUP goes from five MPs to four. On Robinson said: “We have considered all options and we keep all options on the table”.
My principles and my commitment to the people who put me here will guide that path. I will continue to represent Upper Bann and serve my constituents with every bit of the energy, commitment and vigour I always have.
Carla Lockhart, social media post of 30 October 2026, quoted by BBC News
Sources: BBC (2), UK Parliament
The Pattern
We looked for cases where an elected member publicly told their own party they would leave unless it met a demand, and would keep their seat if they left. We found four, in Britain and Australia, from 2018 and 2019. Three come from the same Conservative fight over leaving the EU without a deal. None of the four left within eight days.
would have to leave the partyif the government chose no deal. He never left. On the party expelled him and 20 other rebels from its group of MPs. (The Guardian)
Show the other 2 cases
The Read
The past points against a quick exit. None of the four MPs left within eight days of the threat, and the two who left took 63 and 103 days. Each of them left after something new happened: Boles after his own plan lost a vote, and Wollaston when a new group of MPs formed.
There are reasons for doubt. In none of the four had the party already said no when the MP decided, while the DUP refused Lockhart on the day she wrote her letter. She also named her own date, and the Belfast Telegraph expects her to resign. None of the four is from Northern Ireland. Her words about a path ahead also leave room to stay in the party and act alone.
Sources: The Guardian (2, 3), BBC
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