Edwin Poots
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Edwin Poots (born 27 May 1965) is a British politician from
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
, serving as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since February 2024. He served as leader of the
Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...
(DUP) from May to June 2021. He was first elected as a
Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...
(MLA) in 1998. In 2007, First Minister Ian Paisley appointed Poots to the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
as Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Poots left office after Peter Robinson became
First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...
in 2008. In 2009, Poots returned to the Executive as Minister of the Environment, before being promoted to Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in 2011. He was removed as Health Minister in 2014. In January 2020, he was reappointed to the Executive by First Minister
Arlene Foster Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (née Kelly; born 17 July 1970), is a British broadcaster and politician from Northern Ireland who is serving as Chair of Intertrade UK since September 2024. She previously served as First ...
as Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs, a position that he held until October 2022. After Foster resigned as DUP leader in 2021, Poots was elected as her successor, defeating Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. However, less than three weeks later, on 17 June, following controversy over his decision to nominate Paul Givan to be First Minister, Poots announced that he had requested a new leadership contest and that he would remain in post until a successor was appointed. Donaldson succeeded Poots on 30 June 2021. Following the death of his friend Christopher Stalford, it was announced on 7 March 2022 that Poots would be co-opted to fill the Belfast South Assembly seat, and run in the 2022 Assembly election, leaving a vacancy in Lagan Valley. In February 2024, Poots was elected as the 7th Speaker of the
Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...
.


Early life

Poots was educated at the Wallace High School,
Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...
, and then studied at Greenmount Agricultural College. He is a farmer and is married with four children. His father, Charles Poots, was also a DUP politician, having stood in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election for the Protestant Unionist Party. One of Edwin Poots's sons, Luke Poots, was a councillor with
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...
, but he did not seek reelection in the 2019 Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council election.


Career


Local and regional politics

Poots served as a local government councillor on
Lisburn City Council Lisburn City Council was the local authority for an area partly in County Antrim and partly in County Down in Northern Ireland. As of May 2015 it was merged with Castlereagh Borough Council as part of the reform of local government in Northern ...
before being elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 1998 election. During 2003 to 2024, Poots served on multiple Assembly committees. On 8 May 2007, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
, a post he held until 9 June 2008, when a cabinet re-shuffle saw this post being reassigned to Gregory Campbell. He was subsequently made Deputy Mayor of Lisburn on 23 June 2008. On 1 July 2009, Poots was returned to the Executive as Minister of the Environment, in charge of the
Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
. In May 2011, he was appointed as Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. In June 2011, Poots fired his legal shotgun twice from his upstairs window as a warning to intruders on his property in Lisburn, who then fled. His family called the police and an investigation began. A DUP spokesman said "Given the risk to Mr Poots and his family, a legally held shotgun was safely discharged into the air by Mr Poots from within his house to alert the intruders that their presence was known." On 23 September 2014, Poots was replaced by Jim Wells as Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. When devolution was restored on 11 January 2020, First Minister
Arlene Foster Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (née Kelly; born 17 July 1970), is a British broadcaster and politician from Northern Ireland who is serving as Chair of Intertrade UK since September 2024. She previously served as First ...
appointed Poots as Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs. Gordon Lyons served as the acting Agriculture Minister from 2 February to 8 March 2021 after Poots stood down temporarily for health reasons.


DUP leadership

On 29 April 2021, Poots announced his candidacy in the party leadership election in May to succeed
Arlene Foster Arlene Isobel Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (née Kelly; born 17 July 1970), is a British broadcaster and politician from Northern Ireland who is serving as Chair of Intertrade UK since September 2024. She previously served as First ...
as DUP leader, the day after Foster declared she would be resigning. Poots was announced as leader of the DUP on 14 May 2021, beating Sir Jeffrey Donaldson by 19 votes to 17. He was ratified as the party's leader on 28 May. Some DUP members spoke of their "disgust" at the way in which Foster had been ousted. There were claims that Poots' supporters engaged in bullying and intimidation during the leadership election, and some party members walked out before his speech. Poots admitted party members are "bruised" but denied claims of intimidation. Several party members resigned, including councillors. The
First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...
had always been the leader of the largest party, but Poots said he did not want to be First Minister if he became DUP leader. On 8 June, Poots unveiled his ministerial team, which included Paul Givan as First Minister. On 17 June 2021, a letter from the DUP party chairman and other senior party members asked Poots to delay Givan's nomination as First Minister to oppose the British government's decision to introduce Irish language legislation in the Westminster Parliament. However, Poots nominated Givan as First Minister and
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
re-nominated Michelle O'Neill as deputy First Minister, restoring the
Northern Ireland Executive The Northern Ireland Executive (Irish language, Irish: ''Feidhmeannas Thuaisceart Éireann'', Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster Scots: ''Norlin Airlan Executive'') is the devolution, devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branc ...
. Prior to this nomination DUP MLAs had voted 24 to four against the decision to nominate Givan for the role. Within hours of Givan being sworn in as First Minister, DUP officials convened a party meeting to oust Poots as the leader of the party. Poots was forced to resign only 21 days into his tenure as DUP leader, announcing that he had requested a new leadership contest but that he would stay in post until a successor was elected. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson succeeded Poots in the role on 30 June 2021.


Assembly politics

In January 2022, Poots unsuccessfully sought to switch constituencies for Northern Ireland Assembly elections.


Northern Ireland Protocol

On 6 June 2021, Poots announced he would legally challenge the Northern Ireland Protocol and insisted he would not build any permanent infrastructure to help implement it, stating that he would also be "commencing the process to remove what has already been imposed using the courts and politics to make the case. Every unionist is not just opposed to the economic burdens but reject the implications for our sovereignty as part of the UK". On 21 December 2021, Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson (on behalf of the Unionist Voice Policy Studies think tank) served a pre-action letter on Poots, stating an intention to commence judicial review proceedings if he did not declare an intent to refer decisions on the checks and inspections to his Executive colleagues for approval. Under Stormont rules, issues deemed 'significant and controversial' should be dealt with by Northern Ireland's
power sharing Power sharing is a practice in conflict resolution where multiple groups distribute political, military, or economic power among themselves according to agreed rules. It can refer to any formal framework or informal pact that regulates the distri ...
executive as a whole. Issues that cut across the responsibilities of multiple departments should also be brought to the Executive under the terms of the ministerial code. In Bryson's view, Poots would therefore have had to seek Executive approval pursuant to section 28A (5) of the NI Act 1998 in relation to the continuing, and any future, implementation of the Protocol. On 25 January 2022, Poots confirmed his intention to ask the Executive for retrospective approval for carrying out checks from the date the protocol came into effect in January 2021 and ongoing permission to continue doing them. As the minister responsible for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), having "issued a similar instruction n 2021, Poots unilaterally "ordered all Brexit checks on food and farm products to be stopped" from midnight on 2 February 2022. Several commentators, including the
Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
, questioned the legality of Poots' instruction and whether DAERA officials could lawfully comply. On 15 December 2022, the High Court of Northern Ireland declared that the Poots decision to halt Irish Sea border checks were unlawful and "politically motivated". Formally quashing Poots's order to DAERA staff, Mr Justice Colton stated: "By issuing the instruction on February 2, 2022 the Minister was in breach of his legal obligations. The instruction was unlawful and of no effect". The judge also said that it was "difficult to draw conclusion other than the decision under challenge was an overtly political one, taken for political reasons, and as part of a political campaign directed in opposition to the Protocol". In January 2023, the UK government passed legislation to allow the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to direct the construction and manning of permanent border posts in Northern Ireland. DUP member of parliament Sammy Wilson stated he believed the legislation was published over the heads of the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure that there was compliance with the NI Protocol and so that "unionists are unable to thwart such compliance".


Views

Poots is a young earth creationist, rejecting the
Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...
theory and theory of
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
. In an interview with BBC presenter William Crawley, when asked how old the Earth was, Poots replied: "My view on the earth is that it's a young earth. My view is 4,000 BC". Young earth creationism is accepted by the
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster :''Distinct from Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)'' The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is a Calvinist denomination founded by Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctrinally, the church describes itself as Fundam ...
, of which Poots is a member, and other conservative evangelicals in Northern Ireland. In a 2012 ''
Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...
'' article, which discussed lobbying by the creationist bible group the Caleb Foundation, Poots stated that, while not a member of the group, "Some of my views coincide with the Caleb Foundation". Poots faced criticism for banning
blood donation A 'blood donation'' occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation (separation of whole blood components). A donation may be of wh ...
s from gay people, saying: "I think that people who engage in high-risk sexual behaviour in general should be excluded from giving blood". In June 2012, Poots said he wanted to extend the ban to people who have sex "with somebody in Africa or sex with prostitutes", stating that, in his view, this was also high-risk sexual behaviour. In September 2013, as Health Minister for Northern Ireland, he fought the ruling that would bring laws around LGBT adoption in Northern Ireland into line with other parts of the United Kingdom. In January 2016, Poots was criticised by gender equality advocates, political commentators and other politicians for saying that the newly elected First Minister, Arlene Foster's, most important job was as a "wife, mother and daughter". Poots defended himself saying his statement was "not sexist" and that he considered his most important job to be that of a "husband, father and son". In October 2020, he was criticised by members of
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
and the Alliance Party after saying
coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...
was more common in nationalist areas. He stated: "There is a difference between nationalist areas and unionist areas – and the difference is around six to one". The Department of Health stated that "data on Covid infections is not collected according to religious or political affiliation".


Personal life

In December 2020, it was reported that while recovering from surgery, Poots had tested positive for
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
, the first Executive minister to do so. In January 2021 he revealed to BBC television presenter Stephen Nolan that he had cancer, and on 2 February 2021 he temporarily stood down for health reasons, returning to work several weeks later.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poots, Edwin Living people 1965 births Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Members of Lisburn City Council Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999) Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Farmers from Northern Ireland People educated at Wallace High School, Lisburn Christian Young Earth creationists Christian fundamentalists Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party