McAllister vows not to back down in apology stand-off after Assembly ejection

Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister has insisted she will not be backing down on her refusal to apologise following an incident where she was asked to leave the Stormont Assembly chamber.

The North Belfast representative told followers on social media that she would be back working at Stormont on Monday and would not be saying sorry after she was accused of “challenging the authority” of Deputy Speaker Steve Aiken during an exchange earlier this week.

The incident unfolded on Tuesday after Ms McAllister attempted to raise a point of order in relation to comments made by Education Minister Paul Givan.

The deputy speaker responded by saying “just a second, just a second, just a second” as he indicated that the minister should be allowed to finish speaking first.

In response, Ms McAllister accused Mr Aiken of patronising her.

The deputy speaker then told the Alliance MLA to retake her seat, telling her she had “the opportunity to apologise for making that statement right now, because I believe that it was directed at me”.

He added: “There was no patronising. I was waiting for the minister to finish, in accordance with what he is supposed to do.

“Would you care to make an apology, member?”

When Ms McAllister responded by saying, “no”, she was asked to either apologise or remove herself from the chamber.

She subsequently left the chamber.

Addressing the incident later on Tuesday, Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots said the ruling of the chair was final, regardless of a member’s views, and that it was out of order to add commentary and challenge whoever is in the chair.

He urged Ms McAllister to “acknowledge that she was out of order to challenge the chair”. He said if she did so he would be content for her to “resume business immediately”.

The North Belfast MLA declined to apologise and was not allowed to return to the chamber for the remainder of the day. She is permitted to return to the Assembly on Monday.

In a post on Tik Tok, the Alliance representative insisted she would not apologise when she retakes her position on the blue benches.

“Thanks everybody for the support over the last two days after I was thrown out of the Assembly chamber for refusing to apologise,” she said.

“Little update: I won’t be apologising, and I’ll be returning to work on Monday and, if it happens again, I will call it out again.

“Thank you so much for all the support, for everyone who’s been in touch to say they have been through this in their workplace, it’s not acceptable, and when women support other women, more of us can stand up. Thank you so much for the support.”