Jeffrey Donaldson’s not-so-secret double life leaves DUP in turmoil

Jeffrey Donaldson is incarcerated in Maghaberry Prison safely away from the political tumult that is, because of him, engulfing the Democratic Unionist Party. In September the party’s former leader will learn how many years he will serve for his crimes against the two children he sexually abused. Right now the DUP also is paying a heavy price, not in relation to these crimes but for the secret and reckless double life that Donaldson led. The DUP is busy engaging in damage limitation as stories of Donaldson’s behaviour emerge - stories of drunkenness, of attending a gay sauna, of affairs with women, of how an alleged victim of Donaldson was treated by some party members. There has even been a conspiratorial claim that British security figures may have blackmailed him into endorsing a Brexit compromise to restore the Northern Executive and Assembly. The question is asked: in light of such stories how could Donaldson remain top of the heap in the DUP for so many years? It’s a long way from the Daniel O’Donnell-type, clean-cut Christian image Donaldson was happy to cultivate in public and even joke about. Where to begin? There has been much commentary about Donaldson’s hypocritical behaviour being an open secret. But what knowledge of it there was, it seems, was confined to some people in the DUP and those who were in-the-know weren’t saying much, until now. This reporter remembers years ago being at the installation dinner of a DUP lord mayor in Belfast and seeing Donaldson sitting at a party table where his party colleagues were taking soft drinks, while he enjoyed a glass of red wine. If memory serves, the late Ian Paisley was at the table and there appeared to be an air of disapproval that Donaldson was acting contrary to evangelical Christian protocol. However, he wasn’t knocking back the stuff, just taking a drink with his dinner. A portrait of Ian Paisley hangs in the great hall as DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson speaks to the media at Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Belfast, in May 2022. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA There never was an indication of a massive alcohol habit – at least not in public in Northern Ireland. It was different, we are now told, when he was away from the North on trips. On BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme last week former DUP special adviser Timothy Cairns said he never witnessed it himself but was aware of “rumours” that Donaldson “could put drink away” in a manner that even “George Best could not keep up with”. Former DUP MLA Jim Wells went further, telling the Belfast Telegraph he had been on deputations with Donaldson all over the world and had noticed his “very severe drink problem”, and how at receptions at embassies and other venues Donaldson happily imbibed while the “drink flowed like water”. Ian Paisley jnr topped it all with his disclosure to BBC’s Spotlight programme that Donaldson frequently was drunk on foreign trips and that on one occasion in New York he tried to kiss a female DUP Assembly member. He added that on a trade mission in China, Donaldson was “getting so blindingly drunk that he actually projectile vomited over the mayor of Beijing”. How that particular story did not break much earlier is one of many curiosities in relation to the emerging narrative about Donaldson. What had been made public before last week was a report in 2009 of how Donaldson had wrongly claimed expenses for watching pay-to-view films at his hotel in London. “I did not at any time watch a movie that was adult in nature,” he said, adding that the films he did see were such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This triggered some sniggering and suspicion about his viewing habits and his sexual orientation but there was no suggestion of anything illegal. Cairns also claimed that because of his lifestyle Arlene Foster was “leap-frogged” over Donaldson to succeed Peter Robinson as DUP leader and first minister. “He was held back because of these rumours, there is no doubt about that,” said Cairns. Again, if that is correct, it was inhouse DUP information. Paisley disputed Cairns’s view, telling The Irish Times this week that for a long time Foster had been viewed as Robinson’s obvious heir apparent – which was the general view at the time. After all, Donaldson was an MP and therefore not in a position to take on the first minister Stormont role. The disclosure from the court case that Donaldson had an affair with a divorcee in 2008 in London, and that in 2020 his wife Eleanor bugged his car because she suspected another affair, has also caused some shock. It seems Donaldson could hide his clandestine activity from his colleagues. “I never saw him misbehave in London,” said Paisley, who was an MP with Donaldson at Westminster for several years. “If he had a double life in London I did not see it. He was professional and consummate in how he did his work at Westminster.” As to why the alleged incidents in New York and Beijing were not pursued within the party, Paisley said that although they were “less than becoming, none of it was criminal”. After he was convicted, the BBC Spotlight programme disclosed how two senior PSNI detectives had spotted Donaldson walking into a London sauna that advertised itself as a meeting place for gay men and which was located close to the Houses of Parliament and the HQs of MI5 and MI6. There is additional curiosity as to whether the officers were tailing Donaldson but this week the Belfast Telegraph reported they were on a PSNI/MI5 sting operation against the Real IRA at the time and coming across Donaldson was happenstance. Possibly the line from Paisley that is causing most misery for DUP leader Gavin Robinson and senior members is the claim that five years ago a young woman told Paisley she had been “exploited” by Donaldson, describing herself as a “victim” and saying Paisley should “do everything in your power to make sure [Donaldson] is not the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party”. Paisley reported the claim to DUP MLA Edwin Poots, the current Speaker of the Assembly, who said there was “nothing of a criminal or safeguarding nature raised” and the woman was offered “support” but she did not wish to make a formal complaint. He said the allegation was that “Donaldson behaved inappropriately”. What “inappropriate” means here has not been explained. And neither would Paisley explain it, saying he would elaborate on this issue to an inquiry the DUP is to hold into Donaldson’s affairs. Jeffrey Donaldson (centre), alongside Gavin Robinson (left) and Edwin Poots (right) after a meeting with then UK prime minister Boris Johnson at Hillsborough Castle in Amy 2022. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA The DUP’s overall firefighting response was that the party had “no knowledge of these issues raised and is shocked to learn of these alleged incidents highlighted”. It said: “At no time did the party receive any complaints internally or externally about inappropriate and/or criminal behaviour by Jeffrey Donaldson.” Opposition parties sensing opportunity have been making life troublesome for the DUP, with Sinn Féin MLA Sinéad Ennis in the Assembly this week calling on Poots to stand aside as Speaker “pending the full disclosure of all of the issues”. In an impassioned defence, Poots implicitly made reference to how he was briefly leader of the DUP in 2021 only to be usurped by Donaldson. “I would never have protected Jeffrey Donaldson in any circumstance had he done wrong,” he said, “but given what he done on me in particular previous to that, I definitely wouldn’t have.” And Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister wasn’t going to miss the chance to ladle on more woes for Robinson and the DUP leadership. After bringing down Stormont for two years over opposition to the “Irish Sea Border”, Donaldson endorsed what he saw as an acceptable compromise on the issue and led the DUP back into the Executive and Assembly in February 2024 – two months before he was charged. Allister smelled conspiracy and dirty tricks, saying it was “inconceivable the government was unaware of [Donaldson’s] proclivities and the idea of such being used as leverage is far from fanciful”. If Allister was playing to Lyndon B Johnson’s famous textbook “let’s hear them deny it” tactic, it worked. The British government was compelled to respond. “Mr Allister’s allegations are deeply distasteful and absolute nonsense,” it stated. This has all been taxing for younger members of the DUP, with party leader Robinson complaining “it is clear” some current and former DUP figures had information about Donaldson that they did not share. The party Donaldson joined in 2004 and which he led for close to three years until his downfall has Assembly elections looming next May. Scrambling to achieve some degree of political equilibrium, it has announced a “specialised and detailed independent review into a number of issues” relating to Donaldson. That seems unlikely to provide any immediate relief for the DUP.