DUP ex-Minister: ‘Only nut jobs and ardent nationalists on Twitter’ wanted to close schools as Covid advanced

WhatsApp messages during Covid involving DUP ministers were published yesterday

Former Education Minister Peter Weir after taking questions at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, sitting in Belfast (Credit: Press Eye)

Liam Tunney

Only “nut jobs and ardent nationalists on Twitter” felt schools should close as Covid-19 made its first advance in NI during March 2020, former Education Minister Peter Weir told Executive colleagues at the time.

The comment was included in a transcript of a WhatsApp group involving Mr Weir, along with DUP Executive colleagues Emma Little-Pengelly, Gordon Lyons and Edwin Poots.