Edwin Poots

Edwin Poots is a British politician from Northern Ireland who has served as the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since February 2024. A long-standing member of the Democratic Unionist Party, he was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1998. Throughout his career, he has held several ministerial positions in the Northern Ireland Executive, including Minister of Health, Minister of the Environment, and Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs. He briefly served as the leader of the DUP in 2021. Poots is known for his conservative evangelical views, including his stance as a young earth creationist, and has been a prominent figure in debates regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol.