DUP leader Arlene Foster hails party’s ‘tremendous’ performance

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has hailed her party’s “tremendous” performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly election after an unexpected repeat of its best ever Stormont haul.

The 38 seats won by the party is the same number it secured in 2011 in an election many, including party strategists, viewed as a one-off historic high water mark.

While much of the campaign focused on whether Sinn Fein could eclipse the DUP as the region’s largest party — a possibility Ms Foster herself repeatedly warned of — in the event the gap between the two main Stormont parties actually grew, albeit slightly.