Sinn Féin ministers facing no-confidence vote after Drumcree dispute

The first minister will face a no-confidence vote at Stormont on Monday over her handling of the Drumcree parading dispute.

The motion against Michelle O'Neill and three other Sinn Féin ministers will be debated after it received the backing of unionist parties last week.

However the attempt to oust them will fail as it requires cross-community support from a majority of both unionists and nationalists in the assembly.

It comes amid a major political row over a planned Orange Order march in Portadown, County Armagh.

• What is the Garvaghy Road dispute all about?

O'Neill and other senior Sinn Féin politicians have been heavily criticised by unionists for joining protests which have blocked the parade from passing along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Police are investigating the demonstrations in a "large-scale" criminal inquiry.

O'Neill has defended her actions, saying she was "proud" to stand with the residents and adding that "when the law is wrong I will stand firmly against it".

The exclusion motions have also been submitted against John O'Dowd, Caoimhe Archibald and Liz Kimmins.

O'Dowd, who is also the finance minister, told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Monday that it was not Sinn Féin who brought the Drumcree dispute "back to the table".

"Those who seek to drag us backwards need to be stood up against."

He added that he will go to Stormont to work with other parties.

"I am seeking engagements around the budget, I want to work with parties to make a better society for everyone."

The no-confidence motions were tabled by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) assembly member Timothy Gaston, who has branded O'Neill the "first minister of lawlessness".

The motions gained the required 30 signatures with the backing of assembly members from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, the TUV leader, Jim Allister, said: "Let me be absolutely clear, of course this debate today is not going to succeed because the absurd system whereby it needs cross community support, but that accentuates the pressure on the DUP to be seen to do something because as things stand lawbreakers are sitting in our executive."

Motions of no-confidence in the assembly are not binding even if a majority of MLAs vote in favour of them, and cannot automatically force a minister from office.

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".

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said his party would not be collapsing Stormont, but that he does believe that now is a time for "very stringent action".

"We have got to take some action now to ensure that the law is upheld," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

"But we're not going to commit grievous bodily harm by walking out of Stormont."

Campbell said his party colleague Carla Lockhart is "absolutely right" when she says it cannot be business as usual at Stormont.

He said his view is that is if a minister has been "convicted in a court of law of a criminal offence, a serious criminal offence, there has to be a sanction that would prevent that person from holding office."

The DUP, he added, had the support of its members in relation to the approach it is taking.

"We've taken soundings throughout the party and people are confident in what we've been doing.

"They are looking for action, they're going to get action."

Ahead of the debate at Stormont, the leader of the opposition, the SDLP's Matthew O'Toole said politicians were entitled to express their views but needed to move forward once proceedings had concluded.

O'Toole said attention should then return to issues affecting people across Northern Ireland, adding: "If they work in the public sector, they might be waiting on a pay rise. They might have a family member stuck on a waiting list."

UUP leader Jon Burrows has said withdrawing ministers from the executive is not the answer.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, he said: "I will not remove Robbie Butler at this late stage, because to do so would affect the people of Northern Ireland in all the work he is doing."

Burrows said he was instead calling for changes to Stormont's rules.

He said there should be "proper accountability mechanisms" to hold ministers who breach the pledge of office to account.