Sinn Féin ministers facing no-confidence vote after Drumcree dispute

The motions against Michelle O'Neill (centre), Liz Kimmins (left), John O'Dowd and Caoimhe Archibald (right) will be debated after it received the backing of unionist parties last week

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

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.

Michelle O'Neill has defended her actions, saying she was "proud" to stand with the residents

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.

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".

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".

TUV assembly member Timothy Gaston (right) alongside party leader Jim Allister

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".

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."

Gavin Robinson said that removing Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy first minister would "punish everybody else"

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