25 Facts About Nigel Dodds

Nigel Dodds previously served as deputy leader of the DUP from 2008 to 2021 and leader of the DUP in the House of Commons from 2010 to 2019.

Nigel Dodds has been Lord Mayor of Belfast twice, and served as General Secretary of the DUP from 1993 to 2008.

Nigel Dodds served as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2010.

Nigel Dodds served in three ministerial portfolios in the Northern Ireland Executive, lastly as Minister of Finance and Personnel from 2008 to 2009, a position he assumed shortly after he became Deputy Leader.

Nigel Dodds became Member of Parliament for the Belfast North constituency at the 2001 UK general election and served in that role until he was defeated by John Finucane of Sinn Fein in 2019.

Nigel Dodds's father Joe Dodds, a long-standing Democratic Unionist Party, was a member of the Fermanagh District Council until his death in 2008.

Nigel Dodds was educated at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, and studied law at St John's College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with a first-class degree, and where he won the university scholarship, McMahan studentship and Winfield Prize for Law.

Nigel Dodds entered municipal politics in the 1981 local elections when he stood unsuccessfully for the Enniskillen part of Fermanagh District Council.

Nigel Dodds attracted controversy when he and then DUP leader Ian Paisley attended a wake for Ulster Volunteer Force leader John Bingham.

Nigel Dodds was elected for two one-year terms as Lord Mayor of Belfast in June 1988 when he became the youngest ever Lord Mayor of Belfast aged 29 and June 1992 which was only surpassed when Niall O Donnghaile was elected as Lord Mayor in 2011 at the age of 25.

Nigel Dodds was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, and topped the poll in Belfast North in all three elections to the reconstituted Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998,2003 and 2007.

Nigel Dodds was awarded the OBE in 1997 for services to local government.

Nigel Dodds was Minister of Social Development in the Northern Ireland Executive from 21 November 1999 but resigned on 27 July 2000, then served again from 24 October 2001, when the devolved institutions were restored, until he was dismissed from office on 11 October 2002, shortly before the Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly were collapsed by the UUP.

Nigel Dodds is vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Flag Group.

Nigel Dodds became Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in June 2008.

Nigel Dodds was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom on 9 June 2010, when he entered Westminster after the general election as the new party leader in parliament.

At the Twelfth of July 2013 Orange order parades, Nigel Dodds was knocked unconscious at Woodvale Avenue in the Greater Shankill area of North Belfast by a brick thrown by fellow Ulster loyalists rioting against Police Service of Northern Ireland roadblocks.

Nigel Dodds had been expelled from the House of Commons chamber by Speaker John Bercow for using unparliamentary language on 10 July 2013, after Nigel Dodds had refused to withdraw his accusation that the Conservative Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers was being "deliberately deceptive" in answering questions about her powers in respect of what he called the "outrageous" Parades Commission ruling.

Nigel Dodds said that the 2017 general election had "done more to maximise our influence" as it led to the DUP supporting a Conservative minority government.

Nigel Dodds opposed any attempts from the Republic of Ireland for 'annexation' of the north, and rejected the Brussels "Backstop option", stating it was tantamount to a surrender of sovereignty.

Nigel Dodds was defeated at the 2019 United Kingdom general election, losing his seat to Sinn Fein's John Finucane.

Nigel Dodds was nominated for a life peerage in Boris Johnson's 2019 Dissolution Honours and created Baron Nigel Dodds of Duncairn on 18 September 2020.

Nigel Dodds made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 3 November 2020.

On 4 May 2021, Nigel Dodds announced that he would not seek re-election as deputy leader.

Nigel Dodds is married to DUP politician Diane Nigel Dodds; they have two sons and one daughter, and live in Banbridge, County Down.