He also joined the Protestant Unionist Party (PUP), standing unsuccessfully for the group in Iveagh at the 1969 Northern Ireland general election.
[2] Contemporary reports claim that he started a fist-fight at the Assembly in December, after throwing a punch at Basil McIvor[3] and he was suspended in 1974 for one day after calling Brian Faulkner a "lying tramp".
[2] Poots held his North Down seat on the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975, but he lost it at the 1982 Assembly election.
[2] In 1976, shots were fired at his car while driving through the predominantly Irish nationalist Markets area of Belfast.
[5] His son, Edwin Poots, later became a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.