Jim Wells officially out of the DUP: A look back at four controversial decades in politics

Here, the News Letter looks back at his political career stretching back more than 40 years.

In a recent interview with the News Letter in January this year, Mr Wells said his long political career would likely be defined by his strong views on social issues such as same sex marriage and abortion.

A supporter of Brexit, a vocal opponent of same sex marriage, an advocate of creationism, and an outspoken critic of abortion, Mr Well’s careers has often been controversial.

He was first elected in 1981 to the old Lisburn council when he polled 1,004 votes on the first count.

In 1985 he stood for the old Banbridge council, where he was elected with 912 votes on the first count.

At that time, the DUP man was listed on election papers as ‘JH Wells’ or James Henry Wells, rather than the now familiar Jim.

His career in local government continued in the old Down District Council in the early 2000s. He polled 862 votes in 2001 in the first count, and 1,305 in 2005 but stepped down from the council in 2011.

His Stormont career, meanwhile, began in 1982 when he was elected to represent the South Down constituency for the first time in 1982 with 3,779 first preference votes to the Northern Ireland Assembly as authorities attempted to get devolved government back up-and-running again.

While the Assembly would officially last until 1986, it met infrequently and is now viewed as having achieved little.

Mr Wells would not stand in the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum election, but in 1998 achieved his then best-ever election result when he again won election for South Down with 4,826 first preference votes.

He would go on to win election to the Northern Ireland Assembly a further five times, for a total of seven terms.

In 2003 he topped the poll with 6,789 first preferences, before going on to represent the constituency again following the elections in 2007, 2011, 2016, and most recently in 2017.

The highest office he would held during his four decades in politics would come in 2014 when he was appointed Northern Ireland’s health minister.

But he would resign from the post in April of 2015, after becoming mired in controversy after being accused — falsely — of harrassing a same-sex couple while canvassing. Mr Wells’ resignation also came after he apologised for comments during an electoral hustings about child abuse rates in families with same-sex relationships.