However, less than three weeks later, on 17 June, following controversy over his decision to nominate Paul Givan to be First Minister, Poots announced that he had requested a new leadership contest and that he would remain in post until a successor was appointed.

[10] His father, Charles Poots, was also a DUP politician, having stood in the 1969 Northern Ireland general election for the Protestant Unionist Party.

[19] In June 2011, Poots fired his legal shotgun twice from his upstairs window as a warning to intruders on his property in Lisburn, who then fled.

Gordon Lyons served as the acting Agriculture Minister from 2 February to 8 March 2021 after Poots stood down temporarily for health reasons.

There were claims that Poots' supporters engaged in bullying and intimidation during the leadership election, and some party members walked out before his speech.

[35] Poots was forced to resign only 21 days into his tenure as DUP leader, announcing that he had requested a new leadership contest but that he would stay in post until a successor was elected.

[38] On 6 June 2021, Poots announced he would legally challenge the Northern Ireland Protocol and insisted he would not build any permanent infrastructure to help implement it, stating that he would also be "commencing the process to remove what has already been imposed using the courts and politics to make the case.

[39] On 21 December 2021, Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson (on behalf of the Unionist Voice Policy Studies think tank) served a pre-action letter on Poots, stating an intention to commence judicial review proceedings if he did not declare an intent to refer decisions on the checks and inspections to his Executive colleagues for approval.

In Bryson's view, Poots would therefore have had to seek Executive approval pursuant to section 28A (5) of the NI Act 1998 in relation to the continuing, and any future, implementation of the Protocol.

[42] As the minister responsible for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), having "issued a similar instruction [in 2021]",[43] Poots unilaterally "ordered all Brexit checks on food and farm products to be stopped" from midnight on 2 February 2022.

[43][46] On 15 December 2022, the High Court of Northern Ireland declared that the Poots decision to halt Irish Sea border checks were unlawful and "politically motivated".

[47][48] Formally quashing Poots's order to DAERA staff, Mr Justice Colton stated: "By issuing the instruction on February 2, 2022 the Minister was in breach of his legal obligations.

Young earth creationism is accepted by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, of which Poots is a member, and other conservative evangelicals in Northern Ireland.

[58] In January 2016, Poots was criticised by gender equality advocates, political commentators and other politicians for saying that the newly elected First Minister, Arlene Foster's, most important job was as a "wife, mother and daughter".

[66] In January 2021 he revealed to BBC television presenter Stephen Nolan that he had cancer,[67] and on 2 February 2021 he temporarily stood down for health reasons, returning to work several weeks later.