Andrew Muir survives no-confidence vote over Tyrone cattle cull
The Northern Ireland Assembly rejected a motion of no confidence in Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir on 6 October 2026. BBC News The BBC said 38 MLAs, Members of the Legislative Assembly at Stormont, voted against it. The motion followed a cattle cull in County Tyrone.
Mr Muir leads the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, known as DAERA. BBC News The Newsletter said the Department culled 51 cattle. The cull followed a court order which barred the herd owner from keeping animals.
Farming Life said the animals were shot on land near Fivemiletown in June. The Official Report for 7 September 2026 records Jonny Buckley laying a motion of no confidence in the Minister that day. Official Report The Official Report for 21 September 2026 then records a call for Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan and his party to sign the motion without delay. Official Report The motion came from one grouping. It needed signatures from other parties before it could go to a vote. It did not gain enough support to pass.
Alliance MLAs, members of Mr Muir's own party, walked out before the vote. BBC News With those members absent, opponents of the Minister were short of the numbers required. A no-confidence motion is a formal vote on whether a minister should stay in post.
The row sits within a longer debate about bovine tuberculosis, or bTB, a disease affecting cattle. Animal health policy is devolved, so it is decided in Belfast rather than London. DAERA said Mr Muir opened a public consultation on possible wildlife measures to tackle bTB in Northern Ireland. On 10 June 2025 the Assembly debated the consultation and passed a motion asking him to withdraw it. Official Report
DAERA describes its Test and Vaccinate or Remove approach, or TVR, as a way of handling badgers, which can carry the disease. DAERA Staff trap live badgers, test them for TB, vaccinate those that test clear and remove those that test positive. It works rather like a test-and-treat system. At an earlier stage, when DAERA asked for expressions of interest in what it called the latest step with the cattle industry to tackle bTB, the Department said no cull had been authorised. DAERA
The broader context here is familiar to Stormont watchers. A no-confidence motion in one minister tests how the Assembly is managed, as well as the policy itself. It needs signatures, debating time and, in the end, a majority. Failure does not end the policy row. It confirms the Minister has the backing of enough MLAs to carry on.
Looking at what this means for the Executive, Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, survival gives Mr Muir room to continue. The vote was clear on the day. Questions about enforcement after a disqualification order, and about the future of bTB measures, stay open for the Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and for the wider Assembly. Party managers will note when to table such motions, who to ask for signatures, and how walkouts are seen in the chamber and beyond.
