Arlene Foster is sole candidate for leadership of DUP

Fermanagh Assembly member Arlene Foster is set to become Northern Ireland's next First Minister and DUP leader after she emerged as the only candidate for the post of head of the Democratic Unionist Party.

When the time for the close of nominations arrived at teatime last night, DUP Minister of Finance Ms Foster was the only candidate for the post of leader. She is also viewed as likely to take on the position of First Minister, succeeding Peter Robinson in both posts.

If ratified by the parliamentary party and by the ruling Executive next Thursday, she will become the third – and first woman – leader of the DUP, following in the line of the Rev Ian Paisley and Mr Robinson. She will also be the first woman First Minister, notwithstanding that she has twice acted up in that role.

The new leader will be formally elected next week by the 46-member DUP parliamentary party of one MEP, MPs and Assembly members. That same Thursday night, the party’s 90-100 member ruling Executive must ratify or reject the candidate.

It is viewed as a given that both the party and the Executive will endorse Ms Foster as leader. She was given a free run to take on the posts of DUP leader and First Minister after the only other potential contender, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson, decided yesterday that he would not enter the race.

After giving the matter serious consideration and having consulted with senior colleagues, including Nigel Dodds and Ms Foster, he decided not to put his name forward for the top DUP post.

It had been expected that the DUP would elect the so-called “dream team” of Mr Dodds as leader and Ms Foster as First Minister.

However, when North Belfast MP Mr Dodds surprisingly ruled himself out of the leadership this week, the way was left open for Ms Foster to take on both the leader and the First Minister posts.

Ms Foster, if ratified, will work alongside Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who previously was a member of the IRA who tried to kill her father when he was a part-time member of the RUC. In 1988, she also survived an IRA bomb that exploded under her school bus, which was being driven by a UDR soldier.

Any difficulties in sharing power with Sinn Féin would be "set aside", she said. "I know what it is to work alongside people with whom I have fundamental differences. But I do so in the knowledge that it is good for Northern Ireland and it is good for the people of Northern Ireland. And therefore any difficulties I have in relation to that I have to set them to the side to do what is right for Northern Ireland."