Sinn Féin ministers facing no-confidence vote after Drumcree dispute

The DUP and Ulster Unionists share power with Sinn Féin in a four-party devolved government alongside the Alliance Party.

Jim Allister has been urging the DUP to withdraw Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy first minister to trigger the removal of O’Neill as first minister.

The DUP leader Gavin Robinson told Good Morning Ulster: “When somebody breaks the law they should be punished for breaking the law.”

He said that removing Little-Pengelly would “punish everybody else”.

“Colleagues and I have discussed continually about options that are available to us.

“It is absurd that there will be a motion of no confidence, which we know before it starts, whether it concludes successfully, we know it can’t because of the system that we have.”

Robinson added that he is “not in the territory” to “destabilise”.

However his party colleague, Carla Lockhart, who represents the Upper Bann constituency in Westminster, said it “cannot be business as usual” at Stormont and the DUP has it “within its gift to remove” O’Neill from her position.

Robinson said that when the party comes to a “consensus, that is our position”.

He added that Lockhart has “the right to stand up for her constituents”.