Northern Ireland’s DUP Elects Hardliner Poots as New Leader

Northern Ireland's agriculture minister Edwin Poots walks outside the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) headquarters during a vote to replace former First Minister Arlene Foster in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Britain, on May 14, 2021. Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

BELFAST—The new leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pledged to unite the bickering strands of unionism to fight the Brexit deal and lay the foundations for keeping the province in the United Kingdom.

Edwin Poots, seen by some commentators as more aggressive in his opposition to Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade barriers and more conservative on social issues than his opponent, Jeffrey Donaldson, was narrowly elected leader of the region’s largest party on Friday.