Arlene Foster wades into Jim Wells South Down Assembly election defection row

Less than a year after being toppled as party leader in an internal coup, Mrs Foster also came out publicly in support of a DUP candidate – Diane Forsythe in South Down – whose nomination led to Mr Wells’ resignation yesterday.

Mrs Foster told the News Letter that if she lived in the constituency her number one vote in the Assembly election would go to “Diane of course, followed by other pro-Union candidates”.

Mr Wells confirmed he resigned from the party because he alleged South Down candidate Ms Forsythe had been “enforced and imposed” on the constituency against the wishes of local members.

Ex-DUP MLA Mr Wells, who now gives his backing to the TUV candidate Harry McKee, also claimed that Mrs Foster’s intervention in the controversy that has rocked the DUP was because “Arlene has never forgiven me for being very supportive in the campaign to have her removed as leader and I’ve never regretted it”.

Mrs Foster launched a scathing attack, accusing Mr Wells of “throwing his toys out of the pram” because his preferred candidate and close ally in the DUP Edwin Poots failed to get selected to run in South Down.