44 Facts About Jeffrey Donaldson

Sir Jeffrey Mark Donaldson was born on 7 December 1962 and is a Northern Irish politician who has served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party since June 2021.

Jeffrey Donaldson has been the Member of Parliament for Lagan Valley since 1997, and leader of the DUP in the UK House of Commons since 2019.

Jeffrey Donaldson was the campaign manager for the UUP MP Enoch Powell's successful re-election campaigns in 1983 and 1986.

Jeffrey Donaldson was the Ulster Unionist Party candidate for Lagan Valley at the 1997 general election, and was elected as an MP to the House of Commons.

Jeffrey Donaldson simultaneously represented the same constituency as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2003 to 2010.

Jeffrey Donaldson is known for his opposition to UUP leader David Trimble's support of the Good Friday Agreement during the Northern Ireland peace process, especially from 1998 to 2003.

In 2003, Jeffrey Donaldson resigned from the UUP, becoming a member of the DUP in the following year.

Jeffrey Donaldson served in the Northern Ireland Executive from 2008 to 2009 as a Junior Minister for First Minister Peter Robinson.

Jeffrey Donaldson was a candidate in the May 2021 Democratic Unionist Party leadership election, losing to Edwin Poots.

Jeffrey Donaldson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2022 Assembly election, but he subsequently chose to remain as a Westminster MP and not take up his seat.

Jeffrey Donaldson was born in Kilkeel, County Down, in Northern Ireland, where he was the oldest of five boys and three girls.

Jeffrey Donaldson attended Kilkeel High School, where he excelled at debating, then Castlereagh College.

Jeffrey Donaldson served with the Kilkeel company of the 3rd Battalion Ulster Defence Regiment, where he was later promoted to corporal.

Jeffrey Donaldson then worked as personal assistant to the UUP leader James Molyneaux until Molyneaux retired from politics in 1997.

In October 1985, at the age of 22, following the death of Raymond McCullough, Jeffrey Donaldson was elected with a large majority in a by-election to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent South Down.

Jeffrey Donaldson, by this time serving as Assistant Grand Master of the Orange Order, was a prominent figure in the ongoing Drumcree conflict over a yearly loyalist parade in the town of Portadown.

Jeffrey Donaldson justified unionist demonstrators cutting off Belfast International Airport by saying "in a democracy people have the right to protest and unfortunately some people get inconvenienced".

Jeffrey Donaldson stated in Richard English's book, Armed Struggle, that because of a "deep sense of injustice that I felt had been perpetrated against my people and specifically against my family", he joined both the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Ulster Unionist Party at the age of 18 to oppose the IRA both militarily and politically.

In 1998, Jeffrey Donaldson was in the Ulster Unionist Party's negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement.

However, on the morning of the day the agreement was concluded on 10 April 1998, Jeffrey Donaldson walked out of the delegation.

Jeffrey Donaldson rejected some of the arrangements, notably the lack of a link between Sinn Fein's admittance to government and IRA decommissioning.

Jeffrey Donaldson was not allowed to stand in the 1998 assembly election as a party rule stopped MPs, apart from the leader and deputy leader, from going forward as assembly candidates.

Jeffrey Donaldson engineered several party council meetings in protest against David Trimble's policies.

The council backed Trimble's leadership, and on 23 June 2003, along with fellow MPs David Burnside and Martin Smyth, Jeffrey Donaldson resigned the Ulster Unionist whip at Westminster.

The MPs remained party members and in November 2003 Assembly election Jeffrey Donaldson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for the UUP as an MLA for Lagan Valley.

Jeffrey Donaldson was returned to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the 2005 UK general election and in 2007 was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, entitling him to the honorific style of The Right Honourable.

In total, Jeffrey Donaldson submitted claim forms, including receipts, for 68 pay-to-view movies.

The newspaper claimed "hotel sources confirmed that films he put on his expenses during 2004 and 2005 were in the highest price category offered to guests, covering the latest blockbusters and adult movies" although no evidence is offered that he did and Jeffrey Donaldson issued an official statement denying watching any content of an adult or pornographic nature.

Jeffrey Donaldson was appointed to government by First Minister Peter Robinson, and held the position of Junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister from 2008 to 2009.

Jeffrey Donaldson was a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014.

On 3 May 2021, exactly 100 years from when Northern Ireland was effectively established, Jeffrey Donaldson declared his candidacy for the leadership of the DUP to replace Arlene Foster.

In July 2021 Jeffrey Donaldson said in a UTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become Northern Ireland First Minister before the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring this about.

Plans were drawn up to temporarily re-allow "double jobbing", which would have allowed Jeffrey Donaldson to be in the Assembly and remain an MP.

However, these plans were dropped, so, if Jeffrey Donaldson becomes a member of the Assembly, he will cease to be an MP, triggering a by-election.

Jeffrey Donaldson was elected to the Assembly in the May 2022 election, but declined to take up his seat, with the party instead co-opting Emma Little-Pengelly.

Jeffrey Donaldson said he would not take up his Assembly seat until the situation over the Northern Ireland Protocol is resolved.

Jeffrey Donaldson supported Brexit, but called for the Northern Ireland Protocol agreement between the UK and the EU in December 2020, which establishes a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain, to be reformed or revoked.

Jeffrey Donaldson opposes same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, legalised by the British Government in December 2019.

Jeffrey Donaldson was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 2007.

Jeffrey Donaldson was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2016 Birthday Honours for political service.

On 26 June 1987, Jeffrey Donaldson married Eleanor Mary Elizabeth Cousins, with whom he has two daughters.

Jeffrey Donaldson is a member of the mainstream Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Jeffrey Donaldson describes his national identity as geographically Irish, but as being "part of a wider group of nations that is British".

Jeffrey Donaldson believes that there is no contradiction in identifying as Irish, Northern Irish and British.