{"id":370779,"date":"2026-04-09T06:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/370779\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:49:08","slug":"gary-middleton-dup-mla-steps-down-over-significant-mental-health-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/370779\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Middleton: DUP MLA steps down over &#8216;significant&#8217; mental health challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The DUP will have seven days from Middleton&#8217;s resignation on Friday to announce his replacement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">DUP leader Gavin Robinson said his party colleague had been a &#8220;consistent voice for unionism in Foyle&#8221; and that he deeply regrets his departure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said: &#8220;As the sole unionist MLA in Foyle, Gary Middleton has been a dedicated and steadfast servant to people across the city of Londonderry and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;In being such a clear and consistent voice for unionism in Foyle, Gary has at times faced threats from republicans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That pressure never silenced him nor deterred him, he continued to stand firm for his constituents and his principles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Robinson added: &#8220;Gary&#8217;s focus must now be on his recovery, and he will have the support of colleagues, both inside and outside our ranks, on his journey.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The DUP will have seven days from Middleton&#8217;s resignation on Friday to announce his replacement. DUP leader Gavin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-370779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}