Ms Lockhart said:

“This is absolutely seismic.

After 28 years of Portadown District being denied its traditional church parade route along the Garvaghy Road, a forensic legal challenge has blown open the decision-making of the Parades Commission.

This is a massive victory for Portadown District and a massive victory for unionism and loyalism.

I cannot speak highly enough of Jamie Bryson LL.B, Emma McIlveen BL and John Larkin KC. The scale and quality of the legal work has been phenomenal.

Jamie’s forensic legal analysis and relentless determination to interrogate every aspect of the Commission’s process, coupled with the outstanding expertise of Emma and John, has formed a formidable team.

They refused to accept the established narrative. They followed the evidence, challenged the process and exposed what was happening behind the decisions.

The result speaks for itself.

The Parades Commission has conceded illegality in its decision-making and, such was the strength of the evidence advanced, a full contested court hearing was not even required.

After 28 years, the significance of that simply cannot be overstated.

I am so proud to have played my part in supporting this challenge and to have stood shoulder to shoulder with Portadown District over many years.

But this cannot end with the legal victory.

We have seen what the Commission has now formally admitted as false evidence having been given under oath; Commissioners not even reading much less approving determinations being issued in their names; decision making via Whatsapp; reliance being placed on faceless online ‘troll’ accounts masquerading as unionists; in black and white Commissioners stating they did not want to give the Loyal Orders any “angle”; and a whole host of other legal errors.

The Commissioners should now voluntarily resign, and I call on them to do the right thing and do so. If they do not, there is a clear obligation on the Secretary of State to remove them from office and I am writing to him today to ask this process is commenced immediately. The Parades Commission is a statutory body established by the UK Government, exercising significant powers over fundamental rights. Included in my letter to the Prime Minister is the request for an urgent independent review of the Commission, including its structure, governance, decision-making and accountability. The Commission cannot be permitted to investigate itself and the review should have as an active possibility the abolishment of the Parades Commission.

For years I have raised Drumcree and concerns about the Parades Commission with successive Prime Ministers, Secretaries of State and directly in Parliament.

Yet it took this legal challenge and the scrutiny of the court to expose just how serious the problems were. I will be taking this directly to Parliament upon return in September.

For 28 years Portadown District stood firm, sought engagement and pursued a peaceful resolution. From the late Harold Gracey, through the late Daryl Hewitt, to Nigel Dawson, Alistair Power and the District today, their resolve has been remarkable.

People said Drumcree would never change.

They were wrong. This legal team has delivered a seismic result, and now the Parades Commission must finally be held to account.

The next chapter for Drumcree is about to be written. It is clear there is no rational or lawful basis for the continued complete prohibition of this traditional parade.”