Edwin Poots declares his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP

The North’s Minister for Agriculture, Edwin Poots, has announced he is to stand for the leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Mr Poots, who is regarded as the front-runner to succeed Arlene Foster as party leader, is the first candidate to declare an interest in the position.

In his announcement on social media on Thursday afternoon, Mr Poots said he was a “proud Northern Ireland man, I love this people and this place, and it faces many challenging times” and it was with this in mind he was putting his name forward for the leadership of the party.

“I look forward to the engagement and the debate with colleagues and the wider public in this contest,” he said.

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“Northern Ireland is a place that has had many great things over this last hundred years, I wish to see us rebuild, revitalise, reinvigorate and revive for the next hundred.”

Ms Foster announced on Wednesday that she would stand down as DUP leader on May 28th and as the North’s First Minister at the end of June after a significant majority of her party’s Assembly members and MPs signed a letter of no confidence in her leadership.

It followed mounting discontent, particularly among the grassroots, over Ms Foster’s leadership amid unionist and loyalist anger over the Irish Sea economic border and internal tensions between traditionalists and those regarded as having more moderate views.

None of the other potential candidates have as yet announced their intentions, but the MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and Gavin Robinson are believed to be Mr Poots’ most likely rivals.

The DUP has never held a leadership election, and discussions are expected to take place behind the scenes over the next few days with a view to reaching consensus on a candidate.

A party source told The Irish Times there was widespread support for the idea of separating the roles of party leader and First Minister, and said there was “no doubt” the party would prefer to reach internal agreement on the next leader and deputy leader.

‘Playing games’

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin on Thursday said it would not be “playing games” around the appointment of a new First Minister amid speculation that friction around the change of leadership could destabilise the Executive or even cause its collapse.

The appointment of a new First Minister will require a nomination process at the Assembly, with Sinn Féin also required to re-nominate Michelle O’Neill as Deputy First Minister, and concerns have been voiced within both parties that each might seek to use it to extract political concessions.

The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, in a statement following the resignation of Ms Foster, called for a commitment to power-sharing, respect for diversity and the delivery of the Irish Language Act, which was agreed as part of the New Decade, New Approach deal that restored the North’s Assembly in 2020.

Asked by reporters about his party’s approach, Minister for Finance Conor Murphy said it was not Sinn Féin’s choice to nominate a Deputy First Minister, and this was a consequence of the DUP’s removal of Ms Foster.

“The Irish Language Act is agreed, it has been agreed with the DUP as a party, they signed up to it,” he said. “It’s not a question of renegotiating any of these things, it’s a question of these being delivered.”

“We’re not about playing games with nominations and other things, we’re about getting the things implemented that we agreed last year.”

Mr Murphy said the DUP was “clearly at war with itself” and that was “undoubtedly destabilising for the rest of the Executive” but it was “not up to us to pick the leader of the DUP, it’s up to the party to do that itself.”

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, told the BBC the North’s parties should not allow the change in DUP leadership to destabilise power-sharing. “That would be a disaster - I think instability just leaves everybody in a bad place,” he said.

Ms Foster took part in her first meeting of the Northern Executive on Thursday since her announcement that she is to step down as First Minister, discussing the Covid-19 response and Brexit.

Additional reporting - PA.