DUP leader Edwin Poots faces internal party rebellion

DUP leader Edwin Poots is facing a massive internal party rebellion after he nominated Paul Givan to be the next first minister of Northern Ireland despite a majority of his MPs and MLAs telling him not to. 

Mr Givan accepted the nomination and was confirmed as first minister after Mr Poots pressed ahead at a special sitting of the Stormont Assembly today.

He opted to proceed despite a morning of uncertainty which saw a significant majority of DUP Assembly members and MPs vote against Mr Poots at a private meeting. 

Senior DUP figures wanted him to hold off on the nomination because they are unhappy about the terms he has agreed to reconstitute the powersharing administration after Sinn Fein secured a key concession on Irish language laws. 

Mr Poots has only been leader of the DUP since May 14 after Arlene Foster was brutally ousted.  

But his leadership already appears to be under threat, with DUP MP Sammy Wilson warning Mr Poots will have to ‘live with the consequence’ of defying his MPs and MLAs. 

Mrs Foster tweeted at lunchtime that she hoped ‘everyone is having a great day this lovely sunny afternoon’ in what some people interpreted as a jibe at her successor as DUP leader.   

DUP leader Edwin Poots is facing a massive internal party rebellion after he nominated Paul Givan to be the next first minister of Northern Ireland despite claims a majority of his MPs and MLAs told him not to

Mr Givan accepted the nomination and was confirmed as first minister after Mr Poots pressed ahead at a special sitting of the Stormont Assembly today

Sources said that Mr Poots and Mr Givan had left the room before the vote took place at this morning’s private meeting.

One source said the atmosphere at the meeting was ‘utterly dreadful’ as internal tensions erupted. 

Mr Wilson told BBC Radio Ulster that the DUP MPs and MLAs attending the meeting were overwhelmingly against the nomination process going ahead. 

He said it was a ‘very clear view’ that the nomination should not be made.

The party’s officers were due to meet this afternoon anyway and there have been claims that a no confidence vote against Mr Poots could now be discussed. 

Asked if he has confidence in Mr Poots, Mr Wilson said: ‘My view is that any leader, if they want to have confidence, should bring people along with them.

‘A leader who acts without the support of even a marginal majority of his party has to live with the consequence of that.’

Told that it sounded like he does not have confidence in his leader, Mr Wilson replied: ‘As I have said, I think it is difficult to have confidence in anyone who sets aside the strongly held views of all the various sections of their party and goes ahead and acts without their endorsement.’ 

A stand-off between the Executive’s two main parties over the thorny language issue had been threatening the future of the fragile institutions in Belfast. 

The resignation of Mrs Foster as first minister automatically triggered the removal of Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill as deputy first minister, as one cannot hold post without the other.

Sinn Fein had made clear it would not renominate Ms O’Neill until it received assurances from the DUP that it would press ahead with the long-delayed Irish language laws which were part of the 2020 New Decade, New Approach deal that previously restored powersharing. 

The legislation, which includes the creation of Irish and Ulster Scots commissioners and the establishment of an Office for Identity and Cultural Expression, is still an unfulfilled commitment within the 2020 NDNA deal. 

Mr Poots had vowed to implement all outstanding aspects of the deal, but he declined to give Sinn Fein a specific assurance that he would move on the language laws in the current Assembly mandate – a key demand of the republican party.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announced shortly after midnight that a breakthrough on powersharing had been achieved

Sin Fein asked the UK Government to step in and a deal was eventually agreed by all sides, with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announcing the breakthrough in the early hours of this morning.

The latest deal would see the language laws brought forward in Westminster in the autumn if Stormont has failed to act on the issue by the end of September. 

The terms of the deal prompted senior DUP figures to write to Mr Poots urging him to hold off on nominating Mr Givan until he explained why he had agreed to grant the concession to Sinn Fein.  

The email was signed by defeated leadership candidate Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, party chairman Lord Morrow, senior MPs Sammy Wilson, Gregory Campbell and Gavin Robinson, former deputy leader Lord Dodds and a number of other senior members.

Mr Givan accepted the nomination to be First Minister at lunchtime as he thanked his party leader for having ‘confidence in me’. 

Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy nominated his party colleague Ms O’Neill to again take up the role of deputy First Minister and she accepted.