Northern Ireland police probing claims of intimidation during DUP leadership contest

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating allegations of intimidation by a loyalist paramilitary group during the recent DUP leadership contest. 

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who narrowly lost to Edwin Poots in the contest, reportedly claimed the UDA had threatened members of his team during a meeting of the party to ratify the Stormont agriculture minister’s election as leader.

Mr Poots, an evangelical Christian creationist who believes the Earth is 6,000 years old, today said claims of intimidation should be reported to police.

In a statement, the PSNI confirmed they are examining a report of intimidation.

Edwin Poots smiles as he prepares to speak to media after his ratification as leader of the DUP, replacing First Minister Arlene Foster, in Belfast

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP arrives before Edwin Poots’ news conference in Belfast

‘Police have received a complaint that a number of members of a political party had been threatened during a recent leadership campaign,’ a spokesperson said.

‘The full circumstances of the incident are still being established and enquiries are continuing at this time.’

Mr Poots rejects the theory of evolution and believes the world was made by God around 4,000 BC.

Critics have also attacked what they see as a long history of attacking LGBT rights in Ulster. He supported Christian bakers who in 2015 were cleared of discrimination after refusing to make a cake for gay rights activists in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

He also attracted criticism when Arlene Foster became DUP leader when he said her ‘most important job’ remained ‘that of a wife, mother and daughter’. 

Mr Poots has also taken a hardline stance against the post-Brexit ‘protocol’ for Northern Ireland, which since the start of the year has effectively kept the province in the European customs union and single market for goods. 

Earlier, he told media that no members of his team engaged in acts of intimidation, insisting they fought a fair and clean campaign.

‘If anyone was intimidated, that should be reported to police,’ he said.

‘I can assure you categorically that no member of my team engaged in any activities of intimidation or bullying. 

‘We fought a fair campaign, we fought a clean campaign, it was a close contest, I accepted the outcome and I would have accepted the outcome if I had lost it.

‘I would encourage all others, if there was anything that was done untoward by any individual, then that should be reported to police, and it certainly didn’t come from my team.’

Asked if he felt snubbed by Sir Jeffrey, Lord Dodds and Gregory Campbell, who were among those who left the meeting before his speech following his ratification as leader, Mr Poots responded: ‘It’s for Nigel and Jeffrey and others to answer for themselves, I have conducted myself correctly and appropriately and with honour throughout all of this process, and I will continue to do that in my role as leader of this party.’

Accusations of bullying and threats have been made by senior members of the DUP amid claims of deep divisions in the party. 

An unnamed senior party member told the BBC there had been ‘bullying and intimidation’ ahead of a secret ballot to decide the next leader of the DUP in what was their first leadership contest in the party’s history.   

Speaking to the BBC’s Stephen Nolan radio programme, Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie described the UDA accusations as ‘shocking’.

‘There needs to be a police investigation,’ he said. ‘Nobody should be intimidated at any stage.’

Mr Poorts is a ‘young earth creationist’ who rejects the theory of evolution and believes the world was made by God around 4,000 BC

Mr Poots said if he won the position of party leader he would not serve as first minister, but will delegate the position elsewhere.

He was asked about his religious beliefs during a BBC radio interview back in 2007.

Asked how old he believes the earth is, he reportedly replied: ‘My view on the earth is that it’s a young earth. My view is 4000 BC.’

Mr Poots was a culture minister at the time of the interview and he was asked by another interviewee: ‘You’re the culture minister and you don’t believe in evolution?’

He replied: ‘Yes, absolutely. And you’re telling me that all of this evolution took place over billions of years, and yet it’s only in the last few thousand years that Man could actually learn to write?’

Mr Poots hit out at the scientist Richard Dawkins during the same interview, telling the programme: ‘He [Mr Dawkins] wants to indoctrinate everyone with evolution.’