Robinson to step down as First Minister in New Year
Peter Robinson has said he will step down as Northern Ireland’s First Minister and DUP leader in the New Year.
The Democratic Unionist Party politician has said he will not contest next May’s Assembly election and will resign probably after Christmas.
The 66-year-old revealed his decision in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in the same week a deal was reached between his party and Sinn Féin to resolve issues threatening Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Executive and ahead of this weekend’s DUP party conference.
He said he believed it would be “disrespectful to the party membership” to go through the conference “with the pretence that I would be leading the party into the next election”.
He explained he has accomplished the aims he had set himself as DUP leader.
The possibility that his two posts of First Minister and DUP leader could be divided between party members was also indicated in the interview.
Mr Robinson denied that his health was a reason for leaving, saying he had informed his party officers before he had a heart attack in May.
The party leader had to undergo surgery to have three stents fitted. He was also briefly hospitalised in September.
He has been First Minister of Northern Ireland since 2008.
