Member's statement: Committee for the Executive Office — 27 May 2026: Witness Comments
Member's statement by Mr Brian Kingston on .
- MLA
- Mr Brian Kingston
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 1 June 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Committee for the Executive Office — 27 May 2026: Witness Comments
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5580809
Read the official Assembly record
Text
At a meeting of the Committee for the Executive Office held here in Parliament Buildings last Wednesday, a disgraceful allegation was made by Mr Daniel Holder, the director of a group called the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ). His allegation was an injustice that does not stand up to examination and needs to be withdrawn. During an evidence session on race relations, Mr Holder made a sweeping claim that some schools in Northern Ireland are no-go areas for ethnic minorities. When challenged by Committee member Phillip Brett MLA to clarify his statement — I commend Phillip for doing so — Mr Holder came off with the allegation that the Belfast Model School for Girls in our North Belfast constituency was such a school. The fact that Mr Holder was prepared to spout such nonsense, which was immediately contradicted by another panel witness at the Committee hearing, has exposed his own narrow-minded and prejudiced views and his unreliability as a witness or commentator, and it has damaged or reinforced views of his organisation, the CAJ. Unlike Mr Holder, I have attended many events in the Belfast Model School for Girls over the years. It is an excellent school. It has had ethnic minority pupils for many years and is increasingly ethnically diverse, as are all schools across Northern Ireland. It seems that Mr Holder's allegation was entirely based on one unfortunate case involving girls who had been removed from at least three schools due to their conduct, including other schools before and after their time at the Girls' Model. Daniel Holder needs to withdraw his crass allegation against the Girls' Model school and to publicly apologise for it. I publicly call on him and the CAJ to make that apology. I and other DUP representatives will not tolerate his disgraceful slur against the Girls' Model school. We will uphold and stand for the excellent work that it does for girls from North Belfast, greater Shankill and beyond.
328 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.49 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Controversy escalation (0.74).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.77).
- Subject area: Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers.
- The overall probability was low and the text did not adopt any identity-based framing.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.52 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.05 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.10 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.16 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.74 | Yes |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.15 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.49 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.19 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.77 |
| Adopts it | 0.04 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.99 |
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.01 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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