Potential DUP leadership contender pulls out of north-south meeting

Arlene Foster and Edwin Poots (PA)

A DUP minister viewed as a potential successor to Arlene Foster has pulled out of a scheduled north-south meeting with an Irish Government counterpart.

The move by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, who is seen as more hardline than Mrs Foster, comes amid calls from some sections of unionism for the DUP to end participation in cross-border political structures while Brexit’s Irish Sea border remains in place.