Jim Wells: BBC sees internal DUP email on resignation threat

In his email, Mr Wells said he felt he had lost the confidence of DUP party officers

The BBC has seen an email in which former health minister Jim Wells threatened to resign from the DUP.

In it, he said he believed the party did not give him enough support over controversial remarks on homosexuality and child abuse.

Neither Mr Wells nor the DUP has made any comment on the contents of the internal DUP e-mail.

Earlier this month, the Public Prosecution Service said he would not be prosecuted for his comments.

He insisted this decision vindicated his view that his comments about children being at risk of neglect in unstable relationships had been reported out of their full context. The comments were made at a hustings event for the Westminster election.

However, an internal e-mail seen by the BBC reveals that the South Down MLA feels he has lost the confidence of the DUP's party officers and did not receive enough support from the party's press office.

In his frank email, Mr Wells suggested three options were open to him:

• that he should resign immediately from the DUP;

• that he should be re-appointed as health minister;

• or, that Peter Robinson should publicly offer him his old ministerial job, secure in the knowledge that he would turn it down for personal reasons.

A short while after writing this email, Mr Wells issued a statement describing the last five months as "the most difficult" of his life and confirming he was taking a two week break to "recharge his batteries".

However, this week he told the Newry Democrat he was using the fortnight to prepare for legal proceedings against a number of media outlets.

It is understood no legal action has yet been initiated.

He has also told the paper that he would not contest another assembly election, if one were called before Christmas, because of his wife's health.