The resignation of Carla Lockhart has reduced the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to four MPs – three of whom are in their 70s and unlikely to contest the next general election, while the other, leader Gavin Robinson, is under enormous internal and external pressure.

Four recently held DUP seats are now held by Alliance, Sinn Féin, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). Former DUP MLA Alex Easton sits as the independent unionist MP for North Down and Lockhart will be the independent unionist for Upper Bann.

All of which means huge problems for the DUP, not least because none of the seats it presently holds or hopes to regain can be slotted into the bankable or probable columns.

Lockhart’s resignation didn’t land as a fatal blow. She wasn’t one of the party’s big beasts or troublemakers and she never established – or sought to establish – a support base around herself.

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But as the DUP’s MP in Upper Bann, home of Drumcree and the Garvaghy Road, she quickly found herself cast........

© The Irish Times