Arlene Foster on verge of facing DUP leadership challenge
Arlene Foster is on the verge of being removed as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader and Northern Ireland’s First Minister in a move that could jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement and the Brexit treaty’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
An estimated 75 per cent of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have reportedly signed a letter calling for Foster to face a leadership contest.
It has been reported by Northern Ireland daily newspaper The News Letter that half of the party’s Westminster MPs have also signed the letter.
Foster today played down reports that she could be ousted as Northern Ireland’s First Minister.
“So we’ll just deal with it and move on because I’ve bigger things to do, including getting us through this Covid pandemic, including listening to the concerns of working class communities,” she said.
It comes just weeks after Belfast was hit by days of rioting and violence started by a small section of Northern Ireland’s unionist community.
Experts said long simmering sectarian tensions, combined with social deprivation in some communities, were at the root of the riots and that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’s Northern Ireland Protocol effectively lit a match on the situation.
The protocol sees Northern Ireland follow the EU’s customs union and single market rules, unlike the rest of the UK, placing a so-called border in the Irish sea.
This separation from the rest of the UK has infuriated some parts of the unionist community.
The future of the protocol may rest with Foster’s successor as leader of the DUP.