Edwin Poot’s’ wife ‘sincerely sorry’ over joke posted by UUP leader Doug BeattieThe leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Doug Beattie, on Sunday apologized after being criticized for posting what he described as a “joke” involving Edwin Poots and the DUP MLA’s wife.r Beattie posted the saved picture that contained the joke, Saturday night, where the post involved a fictional scenario with Edwin Poots and himself at a barbershop.In the post – which the manager said was not written by him but previously sent to him – it also contained Mr Poots’ wife and referred to a brothel.Last night I posted a joke – I introduced it as a joke. It was an attempt at humor no more.By no means do I want to convey that I recommend for the mother to be inactive.We can all make mistakes, my choice of joke was a mistake. pic.twitter.com/OXyNF6UZHu– Doug Beattie (@BeattieDoug) January 23, 2022Beattie subsequently deleted the post before tweeting, “Okay, so my joke was not for universal approval so as not to offend, I deleted it.”When a user asked if he had written it himself, Mr Beattie replied, “No, it was sent to me. I was just about to clear out my pictures and came across it.”Beattie was criticized by a number of social media users after the post, including by Alliance party leader Naomi Long, who said she was “shocked” at “how randomly misogynistic” the tweet was.“It would have made many blush from the 1970s,” she added.Ok so my joke was not for universal approval not to offend I deleted it.– Doug Beattie (@BeattieDoug) January 22, 2022Her party colleague Eoin Tennyson, a candidate for Upper Bann, tweeted: “As men, we have a responsibility to shout, eradicate and challenge random misogyny.“It simply came to our notice then.“Giving it up as a joke is not good enough. You should apologize.”Sincerely shocked at how relaxed misogyny it was. It would have made many blush in the 1970s.– Naomi Long MLA (@naomi_long) January 22, 2022Sunday morning, Mr Beattie posted a public apology on Twitter, claiming it was an “attempt at humor, nothing more”.“By no means would I want to offend anyone, but it’s clear I have, so it’s only right that I apologize for doing so,” he added.“We can all make mistakes, my choice of joke was a mistake.”DUP has been contacted for response.