Jeffrey Donaldson
When the news broke at 1.00 pm on Good Friday that DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had been charged with historical sex offences including rape, there had already been a fair amount of crisis management at play behind the scenes. Charges had been preferred on Thursday evening and Donaldson and his wife, who was charged with aiding and abetting his alleged offences, had been bailed to separate addresses – in Donaldson’s case to his apartment in Greenwich, London. But the information was withheld until after an emergency meeting of the DUP officer board on Good Friday morning. At that meeting, to steady the ship, DUP deputy leader and East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson, was appointed interim leader.
It’s obvious that there had been collaboration between the PSNI and the British government, including the prime minister. The information would also have been given to MI5. The best evidence of their teamwork is that sometime on Thursday evening, the prime minister appointed and swore in Robinson as a privy counsellor. He would then have been told on confidential privy counsellor terms what was happening in the Antrim police station. He may even have been given Donaldson’s resignation letter.
At any rate, Robinson’s elevation was a clear signal from the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) to the DUP officer board to move swiftly on Good Friday morning to prevent melt down in the DUP.
Minus Donaldson there are 11 members on the officer board, three of them – Lord Dodds, Sammy Wilson and Carla Lockhart – were opposed to the deal Donaldson struck to return to Stormont; a couple of others are late converts. The NIO’s fear was that those opposed to the deal would use Donaldson’s departure to rally opposition in the party. The unanimous appointment of Gavin Robinson by lunchtime on Good Friday put paid to that concern.
Nevertheless, the degree of choreography fuelled outlandish conspiracy theories among the DUP’s doubters and more vociferous opponents in the hardline TUV that the NIO had blackmailed Donaldson into accepting the deal in January – so much so that on Easter Sunday the PSNI issued a statement making clear that its enquiries began only in March and warning social media warriors about contempt of court.
Despite that, the DUP is not out of the woods yet. The interim leader, Gavin Robinson, will have to be formally elected and ratified by the 130-strong party executive, many of them rank-and-file members deeply unhappy with what they call “Donaldson’s deal”.
In January the executive backed the deal but the voting was not revealed. Informed sources say it was by 53%. It is now accepted that Donaldson’s claims that the Irish Sea border is gone and there are “zero checks” are false. Checks are running at over 5,000 a month and border posts are being built.
Robinson was one of the three who negotiated the deal with the British. The other person, apart from Donaldson, is Emma Little-Pengelly, Donaldson’s nominee for deputy first minister.
A protégée of Donaldson, she was co-opted to the assembly to replace him when he decided to remain in Westminster. She is not universally popular in the party, to say the least. A photo-op playing camogie with Michelle O’Neill won’t help either. It could be a torrid executive meeting reminiscent of the uproar in 2021 when Arlene Foster was defenestrated.
On the plus side for the party, it’s difficult to see a credible leadership contender other than Robinson. While he’s low profile, taciturn and embodies what the late-English comedian Bob Cryer called ‘charisn’tma’, Gavin Robinson, a barrister and former mayor of Belfast is clever, respected in the DUP and a heavyweight in every sense of the word.
On the minus side for the party, Donaldson intends to “strenuously” contest the charges so the saga will play out over months. He’s likely to have to resign as an MP. A by-election would be another headache though the British could delay that. Testing times for unionism.
