Foster to step aside next Tuesday if Poots names new front bench

By Rebecca Black, PA

Arlene Foster will step aside as Northern Ireland’s First Minister next Tuesday – if the new DUP leader Edwin Poots names his frontbench team.

Friday marked the end of Mrs Foster’s tenure at the helm of the DUP, following the election and ratification of Mr Poots as her successor.

However she previously said she would stay on as First Minister until the end of June.

On a visit to Banbridge Academy on Friday, Mrs Foster said if Mr Poots names his ministers on Tuesday, she will go, adding she has worked closely with her ministerial team.

She said she will also quit the DUP.

First Minster visits the Academy to talk with Year 13 Politics students about her life in NI Politics. ⁦@CSSC_NI⁩ ⁦@Education_NI⁩ ⁦@Ed_Authority⁩ pic.twitter.com/Zk5J0wmtbo

— Banbridge Academy (@BanAcademyNews) May 28, 2021

Speaking to reporters as she visited pupils at Banbridge Academy, Mrs Foster was asked what she will do if Mr Poots unveils his team on Tuesday.

“My reaction is that I will resign as well because I have my ministerial team in the Executive with me, we have worked very closely together,” Mrs Foster said.

“If Edwin decides that he wants to change that team, I will have to go as well because I can’t stay with a new ministerial team of which I have no authority, and that would be wrong.”

Asked what message she has for the new party leader, Mrs Foster said: “Congratulations on becoming the fourth leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. It is a hugely rewarding job.

“There are very many good people who vote for us, who support us but he (Mr Poots) needs to recognise there is a lot of work to do in terms of healing divisions that are quite obviously there in the party.”

Arlene Foster has confirmed she will leave the DUP when she steps down as first minister.

She also said that if Edwin Poots appoints a new ministerial team on Tuesday, she will step down immediately as first minister. She originally had agreed to stay on until the end of June. pic.twitter.com/PNTCve8l9c

— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) May 28, 2021

Mr Poots said it is for her to decide when she vacates the post, adding he will not be pushed into moving before he is ready.

The Agriculture Minister has said he will not take up the post of First Minister, and will instead focus on leading the DUP.

MLAs Mervyn Storey and Paul Givan have been rumoured to be in consideration for the post.

Mr Poots denied his party is divided, despite stormy exchanges at a meeting on Thursday of members to ratify his election as leader.

He said the DUP went through its first electoral contest for leader and that passion was inevitable.

“We will move forward in a united way,” he said.

(DUP leader, Edwin Poots)

Mrs Foster and several senior figures, including Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Gavin Robinson and Diane Dodds, left the building before Mr Poots rose to give his speech.

Paul Bell, a DUP member of 20 years from Mrs Foster’s Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, resigned from the party over its treatment of her.

He hit out at those who ousted Mrs Foster, and warned the party stands to lose thousands of votes at the next election.

Mr Poots said he had a “good conversation” with Mr Bell on Friday.

“Sometimes people do things in haste but I had a good conversation with him this morning and I would love for him to stay in the party. He has made a good contribution over 20 years in the party,” he said.

“I am reaching out the hand to others who maybe aren’t happy about the result of the contest, but there was a contest, it was fair, the outcome is clear, I have a task to do and I will do that task.”

DUP MP Ian Paisley says he understands that the letter which ousted Arlene Foster has been read to her.

Earlier this week Mrs Foster said she still had not seen the reported letter of no confidence which led to her resignation.

“I understand that the chairman of the party has that letter, the chairman of the party, I understand, has read that letter to Arlene Foster and he’s told her the number of names that are on that letter,” he said.

“The process that the party has always adopted is that those letters are not shared with other people who have gone. “My father never ever saw the requisition order that was signed against him. He accepted it because he accepted the good grace and standing of our party chairman.”

(North Antrim MP Ian Paisley)