Jeffrey Donaldson removed from Privy Council

Disgraced former Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been officially removed from the Privy Council.

The convicted child sex abuser had asked for his membership to be revoked in June after his conviction on 18 counts of sex abuse.

The council met at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday and agreed to remove Donaldson's membership.

He has also asked for his knighthood to be forfeited but this has not yet been made official.

An order published by the Privy Council stated that a letter sent to it by Donaldson, asking for his name to be removed from the list of members, was read out at the meeting.

The Privy Council then ordered that this should be carried out.

Donaldson's offences, which included one count of rape, were committed by him against two women when they were children.

The Privy Council is one of the oldest parts of the government, dating back to Norman times.

It exists to advise the monarch and has more than 600 members, but most meetings are only attended by a handful of members.

These meetings take place regularly and deal with issues that, for historical reasons, fall to government ministers in their roles as privy counsellors rather than departmental ministers.

These include things such as setting bank holidays, the design of coins and amendments to university charters.

Its membership is mostly made up of senior politicians including cabinet ministers.

Full meetings are only held when the reigning monarch announces their engagement or when a monarch dies.

Jeffrey Donaldson attended the most recent of these meetings in September 2022.