Sinn Féin calls on Stormont speaker to step aside over Donaldson concerns

By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

Sinn Féin has called on the Stormont speaker Edwin Poots to stand aside pending a DUP investigation into claims of inappropriate behaviour by Jeffrey Donaldson.

Poots has faced pressure from Stormont parties over his role in an incident where a woman raised concern about behaviour by Donaldson.

Sinn Féin chief whip Sinéad Ennis told MLAs that the incident raised “serious questions” over his role as speaker.

Poots has previously said he has has “nothing to answer for” over how he handled the concerns raised by the woman.

Former DUP leader Donaldson was last week convicted of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, relating to abuse of two women when they were children.

Subsequent media reports have raised questions about how much was known within the DUP about Donaldson’s wider conduct in the period prior to his 2024 arrest over sex abuse allegations.

BBC Spotlight has reported that some senior DUP figures were aware of another woman, who was not involved in the recent court case, who had raised concerns about Donaldson’s behaviour but had not wished to make a formal complaint.

In the programme, former North Antrim MP Ian Paisley said the woman did not want to make a formal complaint but he said he told Mr Poots, who was then party leader and is now Stormont Speaker about her concerns.

Questions have also been raised around whether there was an awareness that Donaldson was allegedly engaged in behaviour in his private life that, although legal, was at odds with positions he adopted publicly.

The DUP is commissioning an independent review into issues raised since Donaldson was convicted.

I am calling for the speaker to now stand aside pending the full disclosure of all of the issues and any and all knowledge of them within the DUP

Ennis raised the issue during a sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday.

She said: “Revelations over recent days that members of the DUP, including the Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots, had knowledge of the exploitation of a young woman by the now convicted paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson raises serious questions for the DUP.

“Even if we accept that there were no criminal or safeguarding issues, and that remains to be seen; there was clearly knowledge of inappropriate behaviour by Donaldson, which, according to the current DUP leader (Gavin Robinson), was not passed to the party officers.

“The result of this is that these issues were not raised or dealt with, even as the DUP elevated Donaldson to the leadership of the DUP, effectively Donaldson’s behaviour was ignored, and in terms of this Assembly, it raises serious questions for Edwin Poots as Assembly Speaker.

“This is at best a gross misjudgment by the Speaker, at worst it is a fundamental and disastrous moral failure.”

Ennis told MLAs that a “dangerous paedophile went unchallenged”.

She added: “Worse still, and despite clear and knowing red flags, he was elected leader of the DUP.

“On that basis, I am calling for the speaker to now stand aside pending the full disclosure of all of the issues and any and all knowledge of them within the DUP about inappropriate behaviour before and during Donaldson’s time as DUP leader.”

On Monday, current DUP leader Gavin Robinson said “it is clear” there are former and current DUP members who had information about the conduct of Donaldson which was not shared with the party.

Speaking to the Assembly on Monday, Poots said there was “nothing of a criminal or safeguarding nature raised” in the concerns of the woman.

He said he had asked the chief executive of the Assembly to carry out an investigation relating to Donaldson’s actions when he was an MLA.

Asked if the investigation would also look at his own actions, Poots said: “I don’t have anything to answer for because I did not engage in any misbehaviour of any kind.

“This is an investigation which would allow potential victims of abuse by Jeffrey Donaldson to come forward.”

He added: “Let’s be very clear about this, this is about the paedophile Jeffrey Donaldson, nothing else.”

Poots said that “recusing myself is not something that is necessary at this point, because there is nothing to answer for”.