NI Unionists choose third leader in 50 days
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson takes charge of DUP vowing to unify splintered party
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson vowed to “right the wrong” of the Northern Ireland Protocol as he became DUP leader yesterday.
The Lagan Valley MP said the removal of the post-brexit barriers on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would be one of his key priorities in the role.
His pledge came after his leadership bid secured the majority backing of the DUP’S electoral college of party politicians. Donaldson received support from 32 of the electoral college’s 36 members at a meeting in a Co Antrim hotel yesterday.
Outgoing leader Edwin Poots – who resigned after just three weeks in the job, which he won in what had been described as a coup against former leader Arlene Foster – did not attend the gathering.
After receiving what he described as the “resounding endorsement” of the electoral college, Donaldson vowed to bring the party together again after a chaotic two months.
He said: “It’s been a difficult and a bruising period for the DUP. We all acknowledge that and we’ve all played our part in that. But this morning we are seeing our party coming back together again.”
Commenting on Brexit’s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, which has created an economic border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Donaldson said: “NI is given the right under the Act of Union to trade freely with the rest of our own country and all that we ask is for that right to be restored, that we can trade freely with the rest of the United Kingdom.”