'Disgust' at treatment of Arlene Foster ahead of Poots ratification

The two new unionist leaders are due to be ratified in their new roles.

Doug Beattie’s appointment as UUP leader will follow a virtual meeting of the party faithful.

There were no other contenders for the job, so it should be a rubber stamping exercise.

However, the DUP will meet in person to ratify Edwin Poots as its new leader. 

One-hundred-and-thirty-five party members can attend the meeting at a hotel in Belfast tonight, but it may not be just as straightforward a process as for the UUP.

The DUP’s Fermanagh and South Tyrone Constituency Association posted a statement on Facebook last night.

It says members met this week to “voice our disgust at the manner in which our Party Leader, First Minister and local MLA RT Hon Arlene Foster has been treated over recent weeks”.

The statement continues, “Our Association is sending out a strong message to Arlene Foster. This was not done in our name.”

The message was shared by East Belfast DUP MP Gavin Robinson. He was a known supporter of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson as leader of the party.

During a visit to the Strand cinema in east Belfast on Monday with Michelle O’Neill, Arlene Foster again told the media that she still had not spoken directly to her successor Edwin Poots.

She also mentioned the original letter of no confidence in her leadership which colleagues were asked to sign a month ago. She said she had not seen the “so-called letter” and questioned if it existed at all.

The last four weeks have done nothing to heal the wounds of the move to topple her as DUP leader.

So, despite efforts by Edwin Poots and his supporters to calm claims that he is set to take over a party which is split down the middle, the DUP clearly has some very angry members in its ranks.

How will it work tonight then when at least some of these members will be asked to ratify Mr Poots as leader? What happens if there is a ballot and they vote against him?

It will be up to the party’s chairman Lord Morrow to navigate his way through this unprecedented process.

It’s not lost on anyone that the DUP are grappling with an increasingly bitter leadership changeover while the Ulster Unionist Party, which has so often in the past faced its own political convulsions, is set for a smooth takeover.

The DUP has never before had to manage a leadership contest, followed by a ratification of the winner. Edwin Poots has spent the last few weeks having one-to-one conversations with party members, gaging the mood of the party, working out what needs to be done.

When he faces everyone in the same room later, he may have a better understanding of the difficulties of the job ahead.