DUP: Secret vote 'should have been held on Edwin Poots'

A secret ballot should have been held to affirm Edwin Poots' leadership but the result would not have changed, DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley has said.

It comes after two councillors were among a number of party members to quit over concerns about the party's direction.

A vote to hold a secret ballot on the night that Mr Poots and Ms Bradley were ratified was rejected.

Ms Bradley said there was no "purge" taking place in the party.

Mr Poots, speaking to BBC's Spotlight for an interview due to be aired on Tuesday, said the issue was "peripheral" but he did not want to lose anyone from the party.

The interventions follows the resignation of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillors Glyn Hanna and Kathryn Owen, along with others in the party's South Down association.

Mr Hanna said there was a "culture of fear" in the party and claimed he witnessed "bullying" at last month's meeting of the DUP executive, during which Mr Poots' election as DUP leader was ratified by party members.

He also alleged that people who had put their hands up at the meeting in support of a secret ballot on the leadership were told to put them down.

Party member Roberta McNally, who was also at the DUP executive meeting, said she "witnessed senior members telling people to put their hands down to enable to vote to be open".

Writing on social media, she said that she had informed the DUP's Upper Bann chairman of her resignation on Sunday night.

Ms Bradley told William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster's TalkBack programme that she did not see this happening.

She said that with hindsight, a secret ballot should have taken place, but that the result would not have changed.

"With hindsight, if it had of calmed what we have now, well then yes of course [there should have been a secret ballot]," Ms Bradley said.

"With hindsight, and the ramifications of what has happened, then yes, it would have. I don't think the result would have changed in any way."

Mrs Owen said women and moderates in the DUP have been left "voiceless". Mr Hanna said there was no attempt to fix rifts after the leadership contest.

The DUP said it was disappointed but thanked the members for their service.

In regard to the issues the pair raised, a party statement said: "The party takes these matters very seriously and any complaints should be made in writing to enable a thorough and fair investigation."

A source close to Mr Poots also rejected the suggestion that there was a "purge" to oust some members of the party.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who was defeated by Mr Poots in the recent DUP leadership contest, has expressed support for those who have quit, saying it was highly regrettable that "senior and valued members now feel the DUP is no longer a warm house for them".

It is understood Mr Hanna and Mrs Owen will remain as independent councillors on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

It means the number of DUP members on the council will fall from three to one.

The DUP resignations follow recent tensions within the South Down association between assembly member Jim Wells - a firm supporter of Mr Poots - and members who had supported Sir Jeffrey for the leadership.

Mr Wells did not wish to comment.

The South Down association held its AGM on Saturday night, which saw Mr Hanna removed as chairman by eight votes to seven.

Mr Hanna had been a long-standing member of the DUP ruling executive but had openly criticised the party during the vote to ratify Mr Poots as leader almost a fortnight ago.

He has also criticised the handling of former DUP leader Arlene Foster's ousting from office during the meeting.

In a statement, Mr Hanna said he accepted there was a democratic vote to remove him as association chairman, but claimed "the lack of prior warning echoed how the Poots team treated Arlene Foster".

"If he was leader, Sir Jeffrey would have openly acknowledged the glaringly obvious divide in the party and worked to unite and rebuild. He would not have acted in the way of the new leadership," he said.

A source close to Mr Poots told BBC News NI that the new DUP leader had "no prior knowledge" of the moves in South Down to replace Mr Hanna as chair of the association, and insisted Mr Poots was working to rebuild relations at all levels of the party.

Mr Hanna also said the DUP leadership's actions would be "catastrophic for unionism" and urged anyone with "decency and integrity" in the party to consider their position.

"To be honest, I have often felt the burden of being the face on the ground following the numerous bad behaviours in the DUP and ashamed of them," he added.

"I believe I will be a better councillor without the weight of the DUP on my shoulders."

The fact that Paula Bradley is the one out front and centre fielding the difficult questions about what happened over the weekend perhaps speaks volumes for the job that she is going to do for Edwin Poots.

She's the face of the moderate side of the party and being able to bat back any suggestion that Mr Poots is going to take the party in a hard-line direction.

I think we're going to have judge what happens by actions and not words.

Ms Bradley talked about receiving calls from people who felt isolated - we'll have to see where that goes and whether there are any formal complaints made in writing to the party and, if so, what the process will be for dealing with those.

We'll also have to see who Mr Poots decides to put into his front bench ministerial posts.

That will also send out an indication of how he plans to rebuild relationships within the party, if, for example, he puts someone on his front bench who didn't want him as party leader, but Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

The party is as deeply divided this evening as it has been over the course of the past five or six weeks.

In what is his second week in charge, the new leader's headaches continue.

Mr Hanna said the "bullying" that set it off for him was what happened at the meeting to ratify the new leadership.

"I watched senior members of the DUP going round and telling people to put their hands down so that there was no secret vote," Mr Hanna said.

"That really did put the lid on it for me."

The councillor claimed many elected members and DUP staff were scared to protest because their income depends on their position within the party.

In her statement, Mrs Owen said she had been considering her position in recent weeks, but resigned after witnessing the treatment of Mr Hanna at the AGM.

She said: "It is apparent to me there is a purging of Donaldson supporters and it is only a matter of time before this continues across the party.

"It would be against my principles as a veteran, mother and independent woman to stand idly by and allow this behaviour to continue, rewarded by my silence and inaction."

She added that women and moderates within the party felt voiceless, saying: "The only way to stop this coercion and control is to remove the fuel that feeds it and empower these voices."

Mrs Owen, who was co-opted as a councillor in 2019 but joined the DUP nearly a decade ago, later told the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster that she had been "shut down, I've been shut out. I've been cold shouldered".

Ms Bradley said the party now needs to come together because "the union is at stake, Northern Ireland is at stake".

She said the party needs to sit down and talk about these "personal issues".

Ms Bradley reiterated that she has not yet spoken to Mrs Foster but she hoped to do so "at some stage in the future".

Later, Ms Bradley, who is also welfare officer for the party, said there are issues that have been ongoing and they need to be resolved.

Allegations of bullying were concerning and will be investigated, Ms Bradley added.

She said she had received several calls from "various members who were feeling hurt about everything that went on".

"I have spoken to them and I have reassured them that they are important to us and that their views also matter," Ms Bradley said.

She also said she would speak to both Mr Hanna and Mrs Owen.

Resignations of elected representatives had been threatened after the internal acrimony erupted, but Mr Hanna and Mrs Owen are the first councillors to officially step away from the party.

Mr Hanna's daughter Diane Forsythe, who stood for the party as its South Down candidate in the 2017 general election, has also quit the party.

Ms Forsythe said her voice was not being heard and was "better out of that party".

In its statement about the South Down Association AGM, the DUP said: "Some of the members who have resigned sought re-election to hold office within the party.

"It is disappointing they have chosen to resign from the party, following the outcome of the meeting.

"We thank them for their service."