Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announces bid for leadership of the DUP

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announces bid for leadership of the DUP

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is set to become the DUP's next leader, as he warned Boris Johnson on Monday that the "failure" to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol could throw the future of power-sharing into doubt . In what is expected to be an effective "coronation", Sir Jeffrey, the party's Westminster leader, has confirmed his second leadership bid and is now poised to replace Edwin Poots , who was forced out last week. If no rival comes forward before 12pm on Tuesday, he will be confirmed as leader by the weekend. He will be the DUP's second leader since Arlene Foster was forced out at the end of April. Urging the DUP to set aside weeks of fierce infighting, Sir Jeffrey said the party needed to " unite in the face of the threats posed to Northern Ireland by the protocol". In a clear warning shot to the Prime Minister, he added that the protocol, set up to prevent a hard Irish border after Brexit, was the "number one issue facing our country, our people and our place within the United Kingdom". It comes days after senior DUP figures told The Telegraph that the party could effectively threaten to collapse the