Doug Beattie: Three female UUP councillors - all former mayors - strongly defend party leader's attitude to women

They were speaking out after Mr Beattie came under fire for accusing the DUP of whining "like a girl".

He made the comments during the latest failed attempt to restore powersharing at Stormont.

The DUP had been urged by Sinn Fein to drop its Executive boycott over the NI Protocol.

But during the recalled Assembly debate on Wednesday, the DUP refused to back the election of a speaker, meaning that no other business could take place.

During an often heated debate, Mr Beattie was criticised after accusing the DUP of wanting to "scream, whinge and whine like a girl from the sidelines".

Earlier this year, he apologised for a number of historical tweets about women and a joke he tweeted about the wife of DUP MLA Edwin Poots.

Mr Beattie immediately apologised for his remarks on Wednesday, but Mr Poots told him that "whenever you are a repeat offender, repeat apologies don't cut it".

Alliance MLA Sorcha Eastwood said the comments fell short of the standard of language that assembly members should use, adding that "women do belong in this chamber".

On Thursday, Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín said she had written to the Speaker of the Assembly to raise "serious concerns" about the comments.

“Women and girls in public life, or anywhere, should not be faced with this type of language and what this incident has demonstrated, is that we still have a long way to travel to ensure women have full equality," she said.

However, three UUP councillors from different boroughs strongly defended their party leader's treatment of women.

A former Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, UUP Councillor Diane Armstrong, said her party leader has her "total support".

"All I can say is that Doug treats me - like any other colleague - with a lot of respect and courtesy, so I have no problem at all," she told the News Letter.

"He genuinely does provide great encouragement to all female candidates... I have total support for our party leader."

UUP Councillor Julie Flaherty, who in 2018 was the first female mayor of Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon, said she has worked "with and for" Mr Beattie for over a decade. She described him as "a great colleague and a great friend".

"He treats all women with the utmost respect and has, truthfully, really pushed us all along in the party," she said. "We now have three UUP women elected to the Armagh Banbridge Craigavon Council - Jill MacAuley, Louise McKinstry and myself.

"We work together really well together and we have never had anything but support from Doug and our male colleagues in council."

Councillor Vera McWilliam from Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council agreed with her party colleagues."He just seems to be the target," she said, although she was sure he did not mean his comment in a "derogatory" manner, she said.

"Unfortunately he has made the wrong remark and is being hauled over the coals for it. But as females, he doesn't treat us any differently, he treats us ideally, he treats us with respect."