The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland, Jeffrey Donaldson, resigned from office this Friday after being accused of alleged sexual crimes committed in the past.
The until now head of the second Northern Irish political group, Protestant and pro-British, was arrested and charged on Thursday along with a 57-year-old woman, and they must appear in court on April 24.
Donaldson was key in his party's veto of Northern Irish institutions due to his opposition to the Brexit agreements, until the autonomous power-sharing government was reestablished on February 3 led by Sinn Féin.
The DUP, which was the majority in Northern Ireland until the historic electoral victory of the pro-Irish republicans in May 2022, explained in a statement that Donaldson informed them by letter of the accusations and of his resignation with immediate effect.
"In accordance with the party's statutes, the board has suspended him from membership pending the outcome of the judicial process," he said in the note.
The party unanimously appointed MP Gavin Robinson as acting leader this Friday while internal elections are organized.
The Northern Irish Police indicated, without identifying the accused, that a 61-year-old man has been charged with "non-recent sexual crimes" and a 57-year-old woman with "aiding and abetting additional crimes."
Elected leader of the DUP in 2021, Donaldson is Northern Ireland's most senior MP in the British House of Commons, where he joined in 1997 initially with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). He was decorated by Elizabeth II in 2016 for his services to politics.
He managed the return of the DUP to the Northern Irish Government - which had been suspended since February 2022 - after reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom Executive to guarantee the status of the British province within the United Kingdom in the face of the divergences imposed by Brexit.
On 3 February, Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill took over as First Minister of Northern Ireland, with DUP MP Emma Little-Pengelly serving as Deputy Minister.
Unionists left the Belfast Government in February 2022 over its rejection of the Brexit Protocol for Northern Ireland - later replaced by the Windsor Framework Agreement - which imposed border controls between Great Britain and the region in order to avoid a physical border. on the island of Ireland, in compliance with the 1998 peace agreements.
