Donaldson quits UUP

Rebel MP Jeffrey Donaldson tonight quit the Ulster Unionist Party.

David Trimble was plunged into the biggest crisis of his leadership after Mr Donaldson announced he was leaving the party along with two other Assembly members.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Arlene Foster and Lagan Valley Assembly member Norah Beare are also going.

Mr Donaldson said: “We have made the decision that we are resigning from the Ulster Unionist Party and will be considering our options.”

One could involve him joining the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.

He confirmed: “I have been offered a position on the DUP’s negotiating team to participate in the negotiations taking place in January and will be taking a decision after the holidays.

“This is a sad day for me. I have been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party ever since I was a teenager.

“However I have come to the conclusion that it is not the party I joined and it has abandoned the principles I believe in.”

Mr Donaldson’s resignation came after over five years of in-fighting which has left the Ulster Unionist Party hopelessly split over support for the Good Friday Agreement and power sharing with Sinn Féin.

Mr Donaldson, Mr Trimble’s fiercest critic, jumped ship after several failed attempts to change party policy.

He has been the MP for Lagan Valley since 1997.

Arlene Foster is a lawyer and an honorary secretary of the Ulster Unionist Party and close ally of Mr Donaldson’s.

Norah Beare has worked in the MP’s constituency office and was elected alongside him in Lagan Valley during last month’s Assembly Elections.

The resignations mean Mr Trimble’s Assembly Group has dropped from 27 seats to 24 – the same number as Sinn Féin’s.