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Another sexual scandal in the halls of British power and the specter of a political earthquake in Northern Ireland. This time the case – very serious according to the first elements gathered by the BBC – overwhelms Jeffrey Donaldson, forced to resign as leader of the DUP, Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s main unionist party, after being indicted by the local police following reports of rapes and other alleged abuses dating back several years: an affair that throws mud on the island’s institutions, as well as threatening to bring back the shadow of instability in the smallest and most turbulent of the United Kingdom’s nations. The politician was arrested and interrogated yesterday – with a 57-year-old woman accused of aiding and abetting, whose name remains confidential but whose profile appears to be that of his wife – before being released pending trial: with the first hearing scheduled for the end of April. And today his forced resignation took place, despite the fact that he denies everything, accompanied by the voluntary blackout of all his social profiles on the web.
Deputy since 1997
Donaldson, 61, is a veteran of Northern Irish and British politics, a member of the Westminster Parliament in London since 1997, almost thirty years. Record career for longevity among him, crowned on 6 June 2016 by the royal honor of knighthood conferred on him with the coveted title of ‘sir’ by Elizabeth II on the proposal of the then prime minister David Cameron.
«The President of the party – we read in a note released by the Dup itself – has received a letter from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP in which he confirms that he has been indicted in relation to complaints of a historical nature and communicates his resignation with immediate effect from Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party”: position he has held since June 2021. “As per the Statute – continues the note – Mr Donaldson’s membership has been suspended pending the outcome of the judicial proceedings”.
The party therefore unanimously chose, in full emergency, another Westminster MP, the 39-year-old Gavin Robinson, former mayor of Belfast and deputy leader from 2023, as the new “interim” number one.
The possible consequences
Furthermore, the scandal risks destroying the electoral prospects of the DUP, already declining in support in recent years, also in view of the next British political vote expected within the year. As well as triggering new fibrillations within the local government of Belfast, reconstituted after two years of stalemate a couple of months ago thanks to the post-Brexit mending mediated by the Tory central executive in London of the alliance between the Catholic republican party of Sinn Fein, which became a relative majority force in Ulster for the first time in the last elections, and the largest Protestant unionist formation: an alliance imposed by practice by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreements, which put an end to the bloody season of the Troubles, and now led by a all-female tandem composed of first minister Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Fein, left) and her deputy with equal powers Emma Little-Pengelly (Dup, right). A recomposition for which the role – pragmatic compared to the radical standards of other exponents of his camp – guaranteed by Donaldson himself was decisive: a figure considered to be a mediator, despite having joined the DUP in the early 2000s from initially extremist positions, in controversy with the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and after leaving the more moderate Protestant formation of the UUP led at the time by the ‘dove’ David Trimble. On the other hand, his exit from the scene could favor the acceleration of some generational renewal among the unionists. Just as happened with the republican nationalist rivals when, a few years ago, accusations of sexual abuse hit the family of Gerry Adams: crippled the historic leadership within the ranks of Sinn Fein and started it towards a change.