Arlene Foster announces resignation as DUP leader and NI first minister

[muriel_volestrangler]

Arlene Foster has announced her resignation as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and as NI first minister after an internal revolt.

Mrs Foster said she would step down as DUP leader on 28 May and as first minister at the end of June.

It comes as she was facing a revolt among her party's representatives.

More than 20 DUP Northern Ireland Assembly members and four MPs had signed a letter voicing no-confidence in the leadership.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56910045

As well as the Brexit disaster, they appear to think she showed a sliver of LGBT compassion, and the DUP can't have that:

Mrs Foster’s decision to abstain in a vote on gay conversion therapy last week appears to have further agitated sections of the party’s fundamentalist grassroots.

On Tuesday morning, the Belfast News Letter reported that several DUP constituency associations had written letters expressing concern at Mrs Foster’s abstention on a motion that called for a ban on gay conversion therapy but did not incorporate a specific mention of protections for religious practices.

The majority of her party Assembly colleagues voted against the motion, having failed to amend it to include reference to religious protections.

Mrs Foster was among only five party members, including fellow Stormont Executive ministers Peter Weir and Diane Dodds, who abstained.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/arlene-fosters-future-as-dup-leader-brexit-and-vote-on-gay-conversion-therapy-among-critics-issues-40364450.html