The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland\u2019s main pro-union party, is stepping down after he was charged with \u201callegations of an historical nature,\u201d the DUP announced on Friday. <\/p>\n
Jeffrey Donaldson, 61, confirmed to his party in a letter that he had been charged with historical allegations and resigned as leader with immediate effect, the party said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn accordance with the Party Rules, the Party Officers have suspended Mr Donaldson from membership, pending the outcome of a judicial process,\u201d it continued. <\/p>\n
The announcement came hours after police issued a statement on Friday saying that a 61-year-old man had been charged with non-recent sexual offenses, but did not name the person. <\/p>\n
\u201cDetectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested and charged a 61-year-old man for non-recent sexual offences,\u201d the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) statement said. \u201cA 57-year-old woman was also arrested and charged at the time for aiding and abetting additional offences.\u201d <\/p>\n
UK and Irish media have reported that the police charges relate to Donaldson. Both individuals charged by police are expected to appear before Newry Magistrates Court on April 24. <\/p>\n
Donaldson\u2019s social media accounts were deleted overnight, including on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. His page on the DUP\u2019s website was also taken down. <\/p>\n
Northern Ireland\u2019s First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill said Friday her \u201cpriority\u201d was to\u00a0\u201ccontinue to provide the leadership the public expect and deserve\u201d following Donaldson\u2019s resignation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe DUP Leader has resigned after being charged with serious offences,\u201d she said in the\u00a0statement, adding: \u201cThis is now a matter for the criminal justice system.\u201d <\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill, who is a member of the pro-united Ireland party Sinn Fein, is joint head of the Northern Irish government alongside Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP, a pro-union, pro-United Kingdom party. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill said that she will strive to \u201censure the four-party executive coalition delivers for the whole of our community now and in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Donaldson had been chief whip of the DUP since May 2015 and became party leader in 2021. <\/p>\n
First elected in 1997, he was the longest serving sitting lawmaker in Northern Ireland before his resignation, according to the DUP. <\/p>\n
He was first elected as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), but switched his affiliation to the DUP in 2004. <\/p>\n
Under his leadership, the DUP refused to participate in Northern Ireland\u2019s power-sharing government in protest over post-Brexit trading rules. This two-year political deadlock came to an end in February. <\/p>\n
The DUP announced on Friday it had unanimously appointed Gavin Robinson as interim party leader. <\/p>\n\n
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland\u2019s main pro-union party, is stepping down after he was charged with \u201callegations of an historical nature,\u201d the DUP announced on Friday. Jeffrey Donaldson, 61, confirmed to his party in a letter that he had been charged with historical allegations and resigned as leader with immediate <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}