N IRELAND LEADER QUITS

The leader of Northern Ireland’s pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party has resigned after just three weeks in office.

Edwin Poots, who formally assumed office as DUP leader on May 27, said in a statement that he had “asked the party chairman to commence an electoral process … to allow for a new leader”.

His resignation casts into doubt the position of Northern Irish first minister Paul Givan, who was installed in office at midday on Thursday.

It also raises the prospect of Northern Ireland’s powersharing executive collapsing into a snap election.

Mr Poots ousted his predecessor Arlene Foster for being too soft in her opposition to a post-Brexit protocol governing Northern Irish trade.