Dropped DUP minister Edwin Poots has triggered something of a shockwave in Northern Ireland by stating that it's "public knowledge" that Peter Robinson is to stand down as First Minister before the 2016 Northern Assembly elections.
Mr Poots went so far as suggesting that Mr Robinson could even stand down within the next twelve months.
Mr Poots, who was yesterday replaced as Minister of Health by Jim Wells in a Robinson reshuffle, told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan programme that Mr Robinson had already indicated in a recent interview with the Belfast Telegraph that he would resign within the next 12 months.
This caused immediate astonishment as Mr Robinson in that interview with Liam Clarke of the Belfast Telegraph did not say he had any specific plans to retire - although Clarke separately had speculated he might stand down in the next two years.
Mr Poots’ comments were immediately interpreted as the start of an internecine battle within the DUP to try and oust Mr Robinson as First Minister and DUP leader.
DUP leader Peter Robinson was forced to quickly deny he was planning to resign. “Neither now, nor before the Assembly election, have I any plans to stand down and the public and media can be confident that when I decide such a moment has arrived I will be the one to make the announcement,” he said.
“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,” added Mr Robinson.
Mr Poots suggested that it was almost common knowledge that Mr Robinson was planning to walk away from politics quite soon. While he referred to this happening before the 2016 Assembly election he also indicated it could come much sooner.
“It wasn’t really the intention for Peter to stay on for that period of time in any event. That’s public knowledge. That’s in the interview that he carried out (in the Belfast Telegraph) when he referred to months, so months is generally taken to be less than a year,” he said.
Mr Poots said it was also “in the Belfast Telegraph” that he was planning to stand down before the Assembly election, which will come a year after next May’s Westminster election. “That’s public knowledge,” said Mr Poots, notwithstanding that Mr Robinson made no such comment in that recent interview with the Belfast Telegraph.
His comments also come the day after he was dropped as minister for health, a post he held for more than three years. This could not have come as too much of a surprise to him as at the outset of this Assembly in 2011, Mr Robinson said that South Down MLA Jim Wells, who has taken on the post, would replace Mr Poots sometime midway, or thereabouts, into the five-year lifetime of this Assembly.
Recently on the Nolan programme, Mr Poots was hesitant about supporting Mr Robinson as leader up until the Assembly election. He today explained his “somewhat hedgy” response then as being down to the expectation that Mr Robinson would have resigned by then.
There is a degree of scepticism that Mr Poots would innocently make such remarks about Mr Robinson resigning.
Mr Poots, a Lagan Valley MLA, is viewed as very close to the Paisley family, which remains embittered over how the late Rev Ian Paisley stood down as First Minister and DUP leader in 2008. Both Dr Paisley and family members blamed Mr Robinson for precipitating that resignation.
Significance is also being attached to the fact that Paul Given, another Lagan Valley MLA who is close to Mr Poots and seen as a "coming man" in the DUP, was also dropped by Mr Robinson as chairman off the Stormont justice committee.
