Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

Sir Jeffrey Mark Donaldson (born 7 December 1962) is a Northern Irish former politician, who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2021 to 2024 and leader of the DUP in the UK House of Commons from 2019 to 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lagan Valley from 1997 to 2024.

Donaldson was a member of the Orange Order and served in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) during the Troubles. He was also the campaign manager for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MP Enoch Powell's successful re-election campaigns in 1983 and 1986. He was the UUP candidate for Lagan Valley at the 1997 general election, and was elected as an MP to the House of Commons. He simultaneously represented the same constituency as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2003 to 2010. Donaldson is known for his opposition to UUP leader David Trimble's support of the Good Friday Agreement during the Northern Ireland peace process, especially from 1998 to 2003. In 2003, Donaldson resigned from the UUP, becoming a member of the DUP in the following year.

Donaldson served in the Northern Ireland Executive from 2008 to 2009 as a Junior Minister for First Minister Peter Robinson. After Nigel Dodds lost his seat at the 2019 general election, Donaldson became the DUP Westminster leader. He was a candidate in the May 2021 DUP leadership election, losing to Edwin Poots. After Poots resigned the following month, Donaldson was elected unopposed to succeed Poots in the June DUP leadership election; he was confirmed in the post by the party's ruling executive on 30 June.

In February 2022, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed due to DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol. Donaldson was once again elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2022 Assembly election, but he subsequently chose to remain as a Westminster MP, with Emma Little-Pengelly instead taking his seat. Donaldson opposed the Windsor Framework announced by the Sunak government in February 2023 and, for 22 months, Donaldson refused to nominate a deputy First Minister to restore Stormont. In February 2024, the Northern Ireland Executive was restored after a deal was agreed by Donaldson with Sunak's government.

In March 2024, he stepped down as leader of the DUP, having been charged with rape and historical sexual offences, triggering a leadership election. The party also suspended his membership. Donaldson said that he would strenuously contest the criminal charges. In May 2024, Donaldson's solicitor confirmed that he was not intending to stand for re-election at the 2024 general election.

Early life

Donaldson was born in Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland, and was the oldest of five boys and three girls. He attended Kilkeel High School, where he excelled at debating, then Castlereagh College. At the age of sixteen he joined the Orange Order, and then the UUP's Young Unionists.

Two of Donaldson's cousins were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) while serving in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC): Sam Donaldson was killed in 1970 and Alex Donaldson, a Chief Inspector, died in a mortar attack on a Newry police station in 1985.

Donaldson served with the Kilkeel company of the 3rd Battalion UDR (3 UDR), and was promoted to corporal.

Donaldson worked as an insurance broker in the 1980s.

Political career

From 1982 to 1984, he was the constituency agent for the UUP MP Enoch Powell, managing Powell's successful re-election campaigns in 1983 and 1986. He then worked as personal assistant to the UUP leader James Molyneaux until Molyneaux retired from politics in 1997.

Entering politics

In October 1985, at the age of 22, following the death of Raymond McCullough, Donaldson was elected with a large majority in a by-election to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent South Down. In April 1986, Donaldson took part in a unionist demonstration attempting to blockade a conference of the Ulster Teachers' Union held in Newcastle, County Down, in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Demonstrators blocked teachers' cars and scuffled with the police; at one point protestors broke through police lines and attacked Education Minister Brian Mawhinney's car with flag poles. After further violence, arrests were made. Donaldson told reporters afterward: "What we're saying to Brian Mawhinney here today is that he may think that he is an Ulsterman but the people of Ulster want no part of a man who has betrayed the people of Ulster." Mawhinney labelled the protestors "thugs". In June that year, after Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, ordered the dissolution the Assembly, Donaldson was one of 21 unionist representatives who refused to leave the chamber at Stormont and was eventually physically removed from the building by the RUC.

In 1996, he was first-placed candidate on the UUP list for the Northern Ireland Forum elections, virtually guaranteeing him a seat. Donaldson, by that time serving as Assistant Grand Master of the Orange Order, was a prominent figure in the ongoing Drumcree conflict over a yearly loyalist parade in the town of Portadown. He justified unionist demonstrators cutting off Belfast International Airport by saying, "in a democracy people have the right to protest and unfortunately some people get inconvenienced." That led to his selection, in January 1997, as a candidate for the Westminster Parliament, and he was elected at the 1997 general election as the MP for the Lagan Valley constituency, succeeding James Molyneaux. At that time, he was tipped as a potential future leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Donaldson stated in Richard English's book, ''Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA'', that because of a "deep sense of injustice that I felt had been perpetrated against my people and specifically against my family", he joined both the UDR and the UUP at the age of 18 to oppose the IRA both militarily and politically.

Role in the peace process

In 1998, Donaldson was in the UUP's negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement. However, on the morning the day the agreement was concluded on 10 April 1998, Donaldson walked out of the delegation. He rejected some of the arrangements, notably the lack of a link between Sinn Féin's admittance to government and IRA decommissioning. Privately Donaldson came close to meeting a senior republican leader and kept alive contacts with the republican movement through third parties.

Dissent from the UUP

Donaldson engineered several party council meetings in protest against David Trimble's policies. The council, however, backed Trimble's leadership, and on 23 June 2003, along with fellow MPs David Burnside and Martin Smyth, Donaldson resigned the Ulster Unionist whip at Westminster. The MPs remained party members and in November 2003 Assembly election Donaldson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for the UUP as an MLA for Lagan Valley.

Following the success of the rival DUP in the same Assembly election of 2003, Donaldson reiterated his call for Trimble's immediate resignation, but the party continued to back Trimble. On 18 December 2003 Donaldson, Norah Beare MLA and Arlene Foster announced their resignation from the UUP, and on 5 January 2004 they announced that they had joined the DUP.

After joining the DUP

Donaldson was returned to the House of Commons in the 2005 UK general election and, in 2007, he was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, entitling him to the honorific style of ''The Right Honourable''. At the March 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he was re-elected as an MLA for Lagan Valley.

In July 2009, ''The Daily Telegraph'' reported that Donaldson had repaid £555 claimed for pay-to-view films in overnight hotel stays. In total, Donaldson submitted claim forms, including receipts, for 68 pay-to-view movies. The newspaper claimed "hotel sources confirmed that films he put on his expenses during 2004 and 2005 were in the highest price category offered to guests, covering the latest blockbusters and adult movies", although no evidence was offered and Donaldson issued an official statement denying watching any content of an adult or pornographic nature.

Donaldson was appointed to government by First Minister Peter Robinson, and held the position of Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister from 2008 to 2009. Being also an MP, he lost his position due to the DUP's phasing out of " double jobbing". Following his re-election to the House of Commons at the general election in May 2010, Donaldson stood down from the Northern Ireland Assembly on 10 June, and was replaced on 16 June by Paul Givan.

He was a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014.

DUP leadership

On 3 May 2021, exactly 100 years after Northern Ireland was effectively established, Donaldson declared his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP to replace Arlene Foster. He lost the subsequent leadership election to Edwin Poots MLA, by 19 votes to 17.

Poots resigned after only 21 days as leader, having faced an internal revolt against his decision to proceed without delay to nominate Paul Givan as First Minister, after Sinn Féin had reached an agreement with the Westminster government about an Irish Language Act. The ''Belfast Telegraph'' described the events as "one of the most tumultuous days in the DUP's 50-year history".

On 21 June, Donaldson declared his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP to replace Poots, pledging to make the Northern Ireland Protocol his main priority. He was the sole candidate. The party's electoral college endorsed him as leader-designate and he was confirmed in the post by the party's ruling executive on 30 June.

In July 2021, Donaldson said in a UTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become Northern Ireland First Minister before the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but also said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring that about.

In August 2021, UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, appointed Donaldson as the UK's trade envoy to Cameroon, in addition to his role as the trade envoy to Egypt.

It was announced on 24 August 2021, that Donaldson was planning to stand as a candidate for Lagan Valley in the Assembly election the following year if he was not co-opted to a vacant seat in the time leading up to the election. Plans were drawn up to temporarily re-allow "double jobbing", which would have allowed Donaldson to be in the Assembly and remain an MP. However, these plans were dropped, so, if Donaldson were to become a member of the Assembly, he would cease to be an MP, triggering a by-election. Donaldson was elected to the Assembly in the May 2022 election, but declined to take up his seat, with the party instead co-opting Emma Little-Pengelly. Donaldson said he would not take up his Assembly seat until the situation over the Northern Ireland Protocol was resolved.

On 29 March 2024, Donaldson resigned as DUP leader after being charged with rape and other historical sexual allegations, which he said he would "strenuously contest". Due to the ongoing case, John McBurney, Donaldson's solicitor, confirmed in May 2024 that Donaldson would not be contesting the July 2024 general election.

Views

Donaldson opposed the Good Friday Agreement. He supported Brexit, but called for the Northern Ireland Protocol agreement between the UK and the EU in December 2020, which establishes a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain, to be reformed or revoked. Despite his earlier rejection of the Good Friday Agreement, he stated in January 2021 that the Protocol "actually undermines the Good Friday agreement".

In 2009, Donaldson was accused of making anti-Catholic comments. Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell demanded an apology from Donaldson and a retraction of his claim that Catholics owed allegiance in the first instance to the Pope and the Holy See.

In March 2019, Donaldson was one of 21 MPs who voted against LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education in English schools. He opposes same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, legalised by the British Government in December 2019.

Personal life

On 26 June 1987, Donaldson married Eleanor Cousins, with whom he has two daughters.

He is a member of the mainstream Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Speaking of his national identity, Donaldson says that he is "Irish and British, Northern Irish and British, and British." He noted that he was a member of the Irish Presbyterian church, which is organised on an all-Ireland basis. He described his national identity as geographically Irish, but also as being "part of a wider group of nations that is British". He believes that there is no contradiction in identifying as Irish, Northern Irish and British.

Sexual offence allegations

Arrest and charge

On 28 March 2024, Donaldson was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and charged with rape and a number of other sexual offences. His wife also faced aiding-and-abetting charges related to the same matter. The following day he stood down as leader of the DUP. The Orange Order and the DUP suspended his memberships in March 2024 pending the outcome of the judicial process, as required by their rules. Donaldson said that he would contest the charges.

As Donaldson and his wife are co-defendants they were initially bailed to separate properties, and thus she returned to their marital home in Dromore while he flew to London to reside in a flat in Greenwich. In response to what it deemed "unhelpful speculation" by some members of the public and media outlets (in regards to his legal issues being used to influence his decision to restore the Executive in January 2024), the PSNI released a statement clarifying that they first received a complaint that resulted in Donaldson's arrest in early March 2024. On 7 April 2024, the ''Irish Independent'' newspaper reported that allegations had been made to police as early as January 2024.

Donaldson is charged with 11 offences relating to two complainants. They are: one count of rape allegedly committed between 1985 and 1991, one count of gross indecency towards a child allegedly committed in 2005 or 2006, and nine counts of indecent assault against a female, allegedly committed between 1985 and 2006. His wife Eleanor is charged with two counts of cruelty to a person under 16 years old, one count of aiding and abetting rape, and one count of aiding and abetting indecent assault on a female. Her charges also relate to two complainants and are alleged to have occurred between 1985 and 2004.

Pre-trial proceedings

On 24 April 2024, Donaldson and his wife appeared before Newry Magistrates' Court to confirm that they understood the charges against them. They were given bail of £350 each and the no-contact was lifted.

On 3 July 2024, Donaldson and his wife again appeared before Newry Magistrates' Court, where prosecution lawyers asserted that there was a prima facie case to answer and both defendants had failed to offer any contrary submissions. Donaldson and his wife then confirmed they understood the charges against them and both declined to make any verbal or written statements in relation to the charges. The court heard that Jeffrey Donaldson was now accused of 18 charges in total (increased from 11 charges): one charge of rape, four of gross indecency and 13 charges of indecent assault. His wife's charges were also increased from four to five, specifically that she aided and abetted her husband in connection with the allegations he faced. Both defendants were then released on continuing bail to be arraigned on 10 September 2024 at Newry Crown Court.

On 10 September 2024, Donaldson and his wife both entered not guilty pleas to all charges during an arraignment hearing at Newry Crown Court. Their joint trial was set for 24 March 2025 and is expected to last for two weeks. On 21 February 2025, Eleanor Donaldson applied to have two charges against her, one of aiding and abetting her husband along with a separate charge of child neglect, withdrawn during an in camera no-bill application hearing at Newry Crown Court. After a video recording of the Achieving Best Evidence police interview with one of the complainants was played to the court, legal arguments from the prosecution and defense teams were submitted to Judge Paul Ramsey. However, on 28 February 2025 Judge Ramsey rejected the application and ruled that Eleanor Donaldson would face trial on all five charges. In light of the ruling, Mrs Donaldson's legal team, led by Ian Turkington KC, informed the court that she would be pleading not guilty to the two charges.

On 14 March 2025, it was announced that Eleanor Donaldson was unfit to stand trial due to a medical issue and Judge Paul Ramsey granted an adjournment application, with a review to be held on 16 May 2025 regarding a new scheduled start date for the Donaldsons' joint trial. A new start date of 3 November 2025 was later listed for the trial, with an assessment regarding Eleanor Donaldson's fitness to stand trial expected to take place by mid-July 2025. During a hearing on 5 June 2025, barrister for Eleanor Donaldson Ian Turkington KC furnished the court with medical reports from a consultant psychiatrist that detailed evidence of a "significant mental deterioration", adding that further examinations would need to take place to assess her capacity to stand trial.

Honours

Donaldson was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 2007. That entitles him to the honorific style "The Right Honourable" for life.

In the 2016 Birthday Honours, he was appointed Knight Bachelor for political service.

References

External links

*

Maiden Speech: House of Commons – 20 May 1997Appearances
on C-SPAN (As UUP member)
Appearances
on C-SPAN (As DUP member)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, Jeffrey
1962 births
Living people
Democratic Unionist Party MLAs
Democratic Unionist Party MPs
Members of the Northern Ireland Forum
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Lagan Valley
Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007
Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011
Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986
Junior ministers of the Northern Ireland Assembly (since 1999)
People educated at Kilkeel High School
People from Kilkeel
People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
Presbyterians from Northern Ireland
Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers
Ulster Unionist Party MPs
Knights Bachelor
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–2024
Ulster Unionist Party MLAs
Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027
Leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party
Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom