Andrew McQuillan

How long will Edwin Poots’s DUP reign last?

Edwin Poots (Getty images)

New DUP leader Edwin Poots has wasted little time consigning the Arlene Foster era to history. Poots’ shake-up of his Stormont ministerial team has resulted in Foster’s loyalists being shown the door, in favour of what the Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister drily termed ‘Poots’ posts’.

Poots’ appointment of Paul Givan, his fellow Lagan Valley MLA, as first minister of Northern Ireland, is perhaps his most controversial, though not unexpected, move. Givan, who like Poots is a creationist, is one of the more verbose figures in the DUP hinterland.

During his previous spell as communities minister – at the height of the renewable heating crisis, which did for devolution in 2017 – he cut a bursary scheme which allowed disadvantaged children to learn Irish. In 2014, he also championed a Private Members Bill which, in the eyes of Northern Ireland’s LGBT community, could have allowed businesses to refuse to serve individuals who identified that way.

Aside from blandishments about the need to get rid of the Protocol, the DUP are offering no feasible solution

While Givan is well regarded in his particular branch of the unionist tribe, dissatisfaction in his own party quickly emerged. Diane Dodds, the ousted economy minister, was tweeting about the need for the DUP and unionism to be more welcoming and all encompassing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this analysis was enthusiastically shared by her husband Nigel, now Lord Dodds. A reshuffle to bring the disparate wings of the party together this was not.

Several councillors have already resigned over Poots’ leadership this week, with more expected to follow. And Givan’s appointment has done little to calm tensions. Indeed, the new first minister’s politics are catnip for DUP critics and his own supporters alike; he was branded an ‘ignoramus’ by Gerry Adams over the cuts to Irish language funding, though some unionists would regard that as a badge of honour.

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