Robin Newton

Robin Newton
MLA
Principal Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Assumed office
20 January 2015
Preceded by Mitchel McLaughlin
Junior minister at the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister
In office
1 July 2009  16 May 2011
Serving with Gerry Kelly
Preceded by Jeffrey Donaldson
Succeeded by Jonathan Bell
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast East
Assumed office
26 November 2003
Preceded by Sammy Wilson
Personal details
Born (1945-12-21) 21 December 1945
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality British
Political party Democratic Unionist Party
Spouse(s) Carole [1]
Children Emma
Adam
Religion Free Presbyterian
Website Robin Newton MLA

Robin Newton [2] is a Unionist politician for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland. He is an MLA for East Belfast, and was a junior minister within the Office of First and deputy first minister from 2009 to 2011. Newton is a chief executive of a management consultancy company and a member of the East Belfast Partnership Board, which tries to promote economic development in Belfast.

Northern Ireland Assembly and Belfast City Council

Newton was first elected to Belfast City Council in 1985 and has been re-elected every election since. Newton is chairman of the Waterfront Hall board. He was elected as a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for East Belfast in 2003.[3]

In the 1998 to 2003 assembly he was the deputy chair of the Development Committee. He takes particular interest in housing matters, the elderly, health services and employment opportunities. Newton is the DUP party spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Investment.[4]

Government

First minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson announced on 22 June 2009, that Robin Newton would replace Jeffrey Donaldson as junior minister in the Office of the First Minister and deputy first minister at the beginning of the new assembly term in September 2009.[5] This reshuffle took place due to Robinson's plans to phase out "double jobbing" amongst elected representatives. Newton was sworn in as junior minister by the speaker, William Hay, on 1 July 2009, and served until 16 May 2011.

As at August 2015, he is a Political Member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.[6]

Robin Newton has described the building of a 1,500 tonne platform for the off-shore wind industry by Harland & Wolff as gold medal type engineering, saying, "There can be no doubts this is the type of work that will secure the future for H&W and the workforce. The building of this type of vessel is a tribute to the management and the employees and places the company once again in the world market as engineering technologists."[7]

References

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Jim Clarke
High Sheriff of Belfast
19992000
Succeeded by
Tom Campbell
Preceded by
Jeffrey Donaldson
Junior Minister
20092011
Succeeded by
Jonathan Bell
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by
Sammy Wilson
MLA for Belfast East
2003–present
Incumbent
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