DUP leadership: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is only candidate

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is the only candidate to succeed Edwin Poots as Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader.

Edwin Poots announced his resignation last week after an internal party revolt, leaving the DUP looking for a third leader in a matter of weeks.

The crisis has raised questions about the stability of the Stormont assembly and devolution in Northern Ireland.

Sir Jeffrey's name will go forward to the party's electoral college, which is expected to meet on Saturday.

Following that meeting of the party's eight MPs and 27 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs), the Lagan Valley MP's leadership will have to be ratified at a meeting of the DUP executive, which is set to take place next week.

He would become the party's fifth leader in its 50-year history, and its third in 50 days.

Sir Jeffrey said he had the vision "to unite Northern Ireland and heal the divisions of the past".

He accepted the task was great, but added: "The overwhelming majority of people who live here want Northern Ireland to keep moving forward."

He had previously said he would leave his Westminster seat to run for the Stormont assembly so he could be Northern Ireland's first minister as well as his party's leader.

Such a move would mean a by-election in his Lagan Valley constituency.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will need to get his political ducks in a row to find a path from Westminster to Belfast.

The clearest way is through the co-option process, which allows a party to replace an assembly member without a by-election, although it remains to be seen which constituency he would target.

There is no sign that the two DUP MLAs in his political power-base of Lagan Valley - Paul Givan and Edwin Poots - will be stepping down any time soon.

The only obvious vacancy coming up in the near future is in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, the political home of Arlene Foster.

DUP chairman Lord Morrow said mistakes had been made in a difficult few weeks for the party, and called on its members to "move forward in a spirit of humility and mindful that our focus must be on serving the people".

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he looked forward to working with Sir Jeffrey and the Stormont executive to "deliver on the shared interests of all the people of Northern Ireland".

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin congratulated the soon-to-be DUP leader on Twitter, writing that he had "worked with Jeffrey over many years in various roles and look forward to working constructively with him in the very important time ahead".

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald tweeted that she would meet Sir Jeffrey "early next week" after they both spoke on Tuesday evening.

Sir Jeffrey has said his first priority was dealing with the post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol.

The mechanism, which was part of the UK-EU Brexit deal, keeps Northern Ireland aligned with the EU single market for goods, ensuring free trade across the Irish border.

However, it has placed additional restrictions on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, prompting unionists to complain of there being an Irish Sea border.

On Tuesday, Sir Jeffrey said he wanted to speak to the prime minister about the protocol as soon as possible, and that he would tell Boris Johnson it was not realistic to expect stability "when every unionist representative in the devolved institutions opposes the Northern Ireland Protocol".

"The government and those who claim to be protectors of peace and stability must step up and deal with the protocol in a manner which respects the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom," he added.

The leadership vacancy arose when Mr Poots resigned after just 21 days in the position he took over from Arlene Foster.

He had defeated Sir Jeffrey in the party's first leadership election on 14 May by 19 votes to 17.

He quit having lost the support of party colleagues as he pursued a deal with Sinn Féin and the UK government over provisions for Irish language legislation.

Sinn Féin had made clear it would only re-nominate Michelle O'Neill as deputy first minister if the party secured a guarantee that language legislation agreed in the New Decade New Approach Deal in 2020, which restored power-sharing, would be implemented.

Due to the power-sharing nature of the Stormont assembly, a refusal by Sinn Féin to nominate would have crashed the Northern Ireland Executive and prompted a snap election.

A continued impasse could have led to a suspension of devolution.

Having not received the backing of DUP MPs and MLAs over a deal to resolve the issue brokered by Mr Lewis, a majority of them opposed his plans to nominate Paul Givan as first minister in an internal revolt at a party meeting last Thursday.

Mr Poots announced his resignation later that day.

"There was a section in the party that struggled to accept that I won the election," he told Sky News on Monday.

"In terms of the support I received, it didn't come from people that it should have and that's just a reality that everybody knows."

Sir Jeffrey, born in Kilkeel, County Down, became politically active as a constituency agent for the South Down MP Enoch Powell (above, left) in the mid-1980s before working as a personal assistant to the former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader James Molyneaux.

After James Molyneaux retired as an MP in 1997, Sir Jeffrey was voted as his successor as MP for Lagan Valley, retaining the seat through six subsequent elections.

He is a member of the Orange Order and also served as a corporal in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) during the Troubles.

In 2003, following long-standing opposition to the Good Friday Agreement and the leadership of David Trimble, he announced he would leave the UUP, later joining the DUP, along with Arlene Foster and Norah Beare.

He was appointed to the Privy Council, a body which advises the monarchy, in 2007 and stood down as an MLA for Lagan Valley in 2010.

He was awarded a knighthood in 2016 for political service.

Sir Jeffrey was defeated by 19 votes to 17 in the DUP leadership election to succeed Arlene Foster in May.

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