ARLENE Foster has said she is leaving the DUP and branded the party's vision under Edwin Poots as regressive and "nasty" on her final day as leader yesterday.
In a scathing attack on her successor, who was widely seen as the driving force behind her ousting last month, Mrs Foster said the party was becoming more narrow in its outlook.
She confirmed yesterday that she would not stay in the DUP after she steps down as First Minister.
She told the Financial Times: "Because I don’t agree with the direction of travel under Edwin’s leadership.
"I think we are regressing and becoming more narrow. It’s quite nasty, frankly. If the union is to succeed, we need to be a bigger tent?.?.?.?The plea I would make to the party is that, if they want to secure the union, then they have to have a wide vision for the union."
Mrs Foster was due to stay on as First Minister until the end of June but yesterday she said she will resign on Tuesday if Mr Poots changes his ministerial team.
"I can't stay with a new ministerial team over which I have no authority - that would be wrong," she said.
However, Mr Poots insisted he was not "pushing Arlene out" of the party.
"That's my position and that remains my position," he said.
During a visit to Banbridge Academy yesterday, Mrs Foster told students she plans to raise awareness about the dangers of social media after she leaves office.
On Thursday, she was awarded £125,000 in damages after a defamatory tweet by TV personality Dr Christian Jessen in December 2019 falsely claimed she had been having an affair.
"People say things on social media that they wouldn’t say on the street, and I am very concerned about it," she said.
"The government in Westminster is looking at reforms, but I think we need to go further – I would hope to use my skills and experience as part of this."
Mrs Foster has already changed her Twitter handle from @DUPLeader to @ArleneFosterUK, taking all 96,000 followers with her.
The @DUPLeader account is now a parody account.
In an extraordinary meeting on Thursday night, tensions flared over the DUP's change of leadership.
Lagan Valley MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson - who ran against Mr Poots for the leadership - Lord Dodds, Economy Minister Diane Dodds and East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson left before Mr Poots's speech.
Paul Bell, the former chairman of the DUP's Fermanagh and South Tyrone, publicly resigned and said Mrs Foster had been "stabbed in the back".
North Antrim MP Ian Paisley, whose late father was ousted from the party he helped set up and led for decades, made an emotional speech saying "leadership transfer hurts".
"If anyone in this party can talk about difficulty, it's me. I saw what happened to my dad, it killed my father," he said.
Mr Poots later denied the DUP is divided.
In contrast, new Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie was ratified by the party without fanfare. Mr Beattie succeeds Steve Aiken, who announced his resignation earlier this month.
He said his party had already spoken to some DUP councillors who are disillusioned with the change of leadership.
But he said those who want to join the UUP must "come understanding the party's values".
"We're a welcoming party, but if we bring anybody in, it must be going in our direction, seeing Northern Ireland through our eyes, and not just carry on with what they were doing previously, but in a different party," he said.
He stressed that he had not been approached by any MLAs who have asked to join the UUP.
