Jeffrey Donaldson: Ulster Unionists to establish independent process for sharing information

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has said it will appoint an independent, external body to set up a process for people to confidentially share information about Jeffrey Donaldson while he is in the party.

Donaldson was convicted last month on 18 counts of sexual abuse, including a rape of two women when they were children.

The former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader was a member of the UUP from 1985 to 2003 before joining the DUP.

The UUP said it would also review safeguarding regulations.

UUP leader Jon Burrows said Donaldson “lived his life as a political fraud and elevated himself to the highest echelons of political life”.

“I want to make sure that during his time in our party, anyone who has any information or concerns that he wants to raise can do so,” he said.

Although no one has yet been chosen to lead the process, Burrows told BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster program that he wanted to reassure the public that there would be a mechanism.

“It is important to send this signal to the public, we are taking action,” he added.

“This is a seminal moment in our politics and we all need to demonstrate a level of standards and transparency and make the Donaldson case a turning point for politics in Northern Ireland.”

Last week Donaldson’s legal team said they planned to appeal his sex crime convictions.

A spokesman for the UUP said in a statement that the party’s thoughts were “first and foremost with its victims”.

The statement said the party “initiated an expedited investigation as a preliminary step to establish the facts surrounding Donaldson’s membership in the party.”

The party said it had established that “no complaints or concerns were raised about Donaldson at that time”.