Background
His father, Charles Poots was also a Democratic Unionist Party politician, having stood in the 1969 Northern Ireland General Election for the Protestant Unionist Party.
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Edwin Poots
Edit ProfileEducation
Poots was educated at the Wallace High School, Lisburn, and then studied at Greenmount Agricultural College.
Career
He is a farmer and previously served on Lisburn City Council. On 8 May 2007, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure in the Northern Ireland Executive, a post he held until 9 June 2008, when a cabinet re-shuffle saw this post being reassigned to Gregory Campbell. lieutenant was speculated that he was removed as Minister of Culture due to his support of the Maze stadium proposals.
He was subsequently made Deputy Mayor of Lisburn on 23 June 2008.
On 1 July 2009, Poots was returned to the Executive as Minister of the Environment, in charge of the Department of the Environment. In May 2011, he was appointed as Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
On 23 September 2014, Poots was replaced by Jim Wells as Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Poots is a young earth creationist and rejects the theory of evolution.
In the same interview, when asked by British Broadcasting Corporation presenter William Crawley how old the Earth was, Poots replied: "My view on the earth is that it"s a young earth.
He is close to the Caleb Foundation, a creationist lobby. Poots caused controversy by banning blood donations from gay people, saying "I think that people who engage in high-risk sexual behaviour in general should be excluded from giving blood."
In September 2013 Poots confirmed his opposition to the LGBT community when, as Health Minister for Northern Ireland, he fought the ruling that would bring laws around LGBT adoption in North.I. into line with mainland United Kingdom. Others considered his comments were kind and well meaning.
Membership
Orange Order; 1st Northern Ireland Assembly. 2nd Northern Ireland Assembly. 3rd Northern Ireland Assembly.
4th Northern Ireland Assembly]
He is a member of the Democratic Unionist Party and is a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Lagan Valley.
Poots was a member of the Environment Committee and chaired the Committee of the Centre (Committee for the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister) in the 1998-2003 Assembly.
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Born
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Nationality
United Kingdom -
Religion
Protestant -
Political Party
Democratic Unionist Party