Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots addresses comment on 'cleaning Jim Allister's clock'

On Tuesday, in the first full day of Assembly business, Jim Allister raised a point of order in the Assembly about comments made on the radio by Speaker Poots.

On BBC Radio Ulster on Monday Mr Poots – responding to a question about Mr Allister’s criticism of him in the chamber – said: "I couldn't respond to that. Certainly he would have had his clock cleaned if I could have."

Mr Allister raised the matter in the Assembly, saying: "Given the dignity and expectations of your office, how was it compatible for you to publicly vent your desire to ‘clean my clock’ – which has the colloquial and indisputable meaning of indulging in physical violence. How is that compatible with the dignity of your office?”

Speaker Poots responded: “I think the member is being a little sensitive. We were in a debating chamber and the reference was in the import of the debating chamber. So Mr Allister had I had the opportunity to put you right, I would have put you right on that occasion, but I didn’t have the opportunity to do that. No other connotation should be taken from it, that would be entirely disingenuous or misleading. So that’s the situation.”

It follows exchanges between the pair on Saturday over the DUP’s decision to re-enter the institutions after striking a deal with the government on the Irish Sea border. Mr Allister referenced comments by Mr Poots last year that it would take “something seismic” from the government to persuade the DUP to return to power-sharing. The TUV leader then quipped that Mr Poots had changed from "Mr Seismic to Mr Speaker", and said that the DUP man's principles were "expendable".

Edwin Poots replaced Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey as Speaker on Saturday and there has been speculation that he will push the boundaries of the role, but Mr Poots said he would carry out his new job with impartiality and fairness.