Foster: Conversion therapy vote triggered my removal

Arlene Foster led the DUP for five and half years from December 2015 to May 2021

Baroness Foster has confirmed that a row over conversion therapy was the "straw that broke the camel's back", when it came to her being ousted as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

She quit as party leader three years ago after an internal revolt.

At the time, DUP members signed a no-confidence motion calling for her removal, with various reasons cited.

Baroness Foster said it followed a vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly calling for a ban on gay conversion therapy, in which she had abstained.

The majority of the party had voted against the motion, arguing that any legislation to outlaw the practice needed to ensure safeguards for churches.

Speaking to Michael Gove for a new Radio 4 podcast, Baroness Foster explained why she had chosen to abstain on the vote.

"I was aware that one of our members had a daughter who was gay - in an attempt to try and diffuse the situation, I said: 'Well, we'll just abstain.'

"It was a non-binding vote. But by saying just abstain, people got very angry about that and that was the trigger then for my removal, which came just a week later."

'I didn't see it coming'

Arlene Foster met Michael Gove in NI in 2021 during a time of Covid restrictions

Baroness Foster, who has since quit frontline politics altogether, said the party was also unhappy with how things had been handled with the Brexit negotiations while Boris Johnson was prime minister.

She also said some within the DUP were unhappy about Covid regulations, which Baroness Foster had been tasked with jointly leading the response to in the power-sharing executive, and that had "caused difficulties".

"Because of Covid, a lot of things were happening remotely, I didn't see a lot of it coming towards me," the former first minister of Northern Ireland said.

"Certainly not of the magnitude that happened and the way in which it happened, because nobody had actually come to me and said: 'Oh, by the way I think you should step down and it's time for you to go'.

"Nobody came to me and said that, but the way they did it was that they obtained signatures on a letter of no confidence and that's how it came about."

She said that while some of those involved in the move later apologised, the "damage was done", describing it as a part of her life which was not particularly pleasant.