Jeffrey Donaldson

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.[13] In April 1986 Donaldson partook 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.[13] 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".[13] In June that year after Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Tom King ordered the dissolution the Assembly, Donaldson was one of twenty-one unionist representatives who refused to leave the chamber at Stormont and was eventually physically removed from the building by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).[14]

In 1996 he was first-placed candidate on the UUP list for the Northern Ireland Forum elections, virtually guaranteeing him a seat. Donaldson, by this 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".[15] This led to his selection in January 1997 as a candidate for the Westminster Parliament; he was elected at the 1997 general election as the Member of Parliament (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.[16][17]

Donaldson stated in Richard English's book, Armed Struggle, 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 Ulster Defence Regiment and the Ulster Unionist Party at the age of 18 to oppose the IRA both militarily and politically.[18]

In 1998, Donaldson was in the Ulster Unionist Party's negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement.[19] However, on the morning of the day the agreement was concluded on 10 April 1998, Donaldson walked out of the delegation.[20] He rejected some of the arrangements, notably the lack of a link between Sinn Féin's admittance to government and IRA decommissioning.[20]

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.[21] 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.[22]

Following the success of the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the same Assembly election of 2003, he reiterated his call for Trimble's immediate resignation,[23] but the party continued to back Trimble. On 18 December 2003 Donaldson, Norah Beare MLA and Arlene Foster announced their resignation from the UUP,[24] and on 5 January 2004 they announced that they had joined the DUP.[20][25]

Donaldson was returned to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the 2005 UK general election and in 2007 was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, entitling him to the honorific style of The Right Honourable.[9] At the March 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he was re-elected as an MLA for Lagan Valley.[26]

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 is offered that he did and Donaldson issued an official statement denying watching any content of an adult or pornographic nature.[27]

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".[28] 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,[29] and was replaced on 16 June by Paul Givan.[29]

He was a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014.[30]

On 3 May 2021, exactly 100 years from when Northern Ireland was effectively established,[31] Donaldson declared his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP to replace Arlene Foster.[4] On 14 May, he was defeated by Edwin Poots MLA, by 19 votes to 17.[32]

On 17 June, Poots resigned after only 21 days in post.[33] Poots had 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.[33] The Belfast Telegraph described the events as "one of the most tumultuous days in the DUP's 50-year history".[34]

On 21 June, Donaldson declared his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP to replace Edwin Poots,[11] pledging to make the Northern Ireland Protocol his main priority.[35] He was the sole candidate.[3][36] The party's electoral college, which met on 26 June, endorsed him as leader-designate and he was confirmed in the post by the party's ruling executive on 30 June.[5]

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 this about.[37]

On 23 August 2021, 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.[38]

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 is unable to get co-opted to a vacant seat in the time leading up to the election.[39] 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 becomes a member of the Assembly, he will cease to be an MP, triggering a by-election.[40] 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 is resolved.[41]

Donaldson opposed the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).[42] 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.[42][43] Despite his earlier rejection of the GFA, he stated in January 2021 that the Protocol "actually undermines the Good Friday agreement".[44]

Donaldson has been accused of making anti-Catholic comments. In 2009, 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.[45]

In March 2019, Donaldson was one of 21 MPs who voted against LGBT inclusive sex and relationship education in English schools.[46][47] He opposes same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, legalised by the British Government in December 2019.[42] Jeffrey Donaldson has repaid £555 to the House of Commons' fees office after charging dozens of pay-to-view movies to the tax payer.The former junior minister made claims for 68 pay-to-view movies at London hotels where he stayed in 2004 and 2005, according to the Daily Telegraph.[48]