Dear reader

The fall-out is continuing after a dramatic meeting of the DUP party executive on Thursday night. 

Most observers had expected the meeting to ratify the election of Edwin Poots as party leader to be a straightforward affair, but it soon emerged that that wasn’t going to be the case. 

A DUP veteran in Fermanagh South Tyrone resigned, citing the treatment of outgoing leader Arlene Foster while the BBC claimed that some of the party’s biggest names, including Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Lord Dodds, left the meeting before Mr Poots’s speech. 

One of Mr Poots’s closest allies Ian Paisley was also in the headlines after addressing the media, denying that Mrs Foster was removed as revenge for his own father’s controversial ousting as DUP leader. 

Mr Poots now faces a testing period in the earliest days of his leadership and he will be writing an exclusive platform article in Saturday’s News Letter. 

You can also read reports and analysis from Sam McBride on the DUP leadership crisis in our Saturday edition. 

Alistair Bushe
Editor

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