Edwin Poots says Peter Robinson will be gone in "months"
The DUP is in disarray.
For the DUP’s Sammy Wilson has been left red-faced after the Sunday World reported on plans by senior DUP members to remove Peter Robinson as First Minister.
Now former Health Minister Edwin Poots has said on live radio that the First Minister will be gone within 'months'.
The latest DUP spat has emerged after a dramatic reshuffle by the First Minister, in what appears to be a bid to crack down on any schemes to rid him from the party.
In July, DUP MP and MLA Wilson debunked our report as “nonsense”.
He took to the DUP’s website, writing: "The story in the Sunday World is nothing but ill-informed tabloid nonsense. Far from Peter Robinson being a lame duck he is giving leadership to the entire unionist community.
“Over the last six weeks Peter has worked tirelessly with other unionist parties, the Orange Order and community leaders to ensure we had a successful and peaceful twelfth."
But this week, senior DUP man Poots admitted on the BBC’s Nolan Show that our reports were, in fact, TRUE.
The dramatic twist came less than 24 hours after a rapid reshuffle which saw Poots replaced by Jim Wells as the new health minister and Nelson McCausland replaced as minister for social development by Mervyn Storey on Wednesday evening.
Robinson took to Twitter to make the announcement of the re-shuffle, followed by another party U-turn on Wednesday morning, after the Nolan Show, when he tried to dismiss the former health minister's words.
Under pressure, he again took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to make this statement: “Neither now, nor before the Assembly election, have I any plans to stand down and the public and the media can be confident that when I decide such a moment has arrived I will be the one to make the announcement.
"I repeat the comments I have previously made that I will continue to lead as long as the party and the electorate in East Belfast wish me to do so."
On Wednesday morning, after being sacked from his role as health minister, Poots spoke on the Nolan Show saying that the First Minister’s plans to quit as FM were public knowledge.
He said: “I already knew that it wasn't the intention that Peter would stay on... that's public knowledge."
Poots also said, in terms of Robinson’s resignation, that the First Minister had “referred to months, and months is generally taken as less than a year."
After Robinsons statement on his resignation, Poots took to Twitter to say: "Thankfully the service in the Northern Trust improved dramatically in my tenure. I wonder what the catalyst for progress was."
Back in July we reported that veteran DUP members were plotting to oust Robinson in a matter of months.
Following our reports, DUP propagandists went into overdrive in order to rubbish our reports.
Now, over half way through September, the cracks are starting to show.