Leo Varadkar turns his focus very much to the right

By lurching so sharply to the right, Leo Varadkar is gambling that he can secure enough of a mandate from those who get up early in the morning to lead the next Government, writes Daniel McConnell.

THE 35%. That is who Leo is fighting for.

Not 50%, not 60% and certainly not 100%. Well, now we know.

If there was any doubt, it has been erased from our minds.

Leo Varadkar is not a leader for all Irish men and Irish women, but rather he has cast himself firmly as the leader of the 35%, which is Fine Gael’s target vote on a good day.

The Taoiseach’s speech at the black-tie Ibec annual dinner at the RDS in Dublin on Thursday night, confirmed the vision for Ireland he sketched out during the Fine Gael leadership campaign earlier this year.

It is the most right-wing vision presented by a Taoiseach in recent history.

The speech, branded “Thatcherism with a fresh coat of paint” by Gerry Adams, was hard-hitting and unambiguous.

“We believe that work should pay and we want everyone, including those on middle incomes, to gain from the system they fund through their taxes. Too many people feel that they pay for everything but get little in return,” he said.

“Where we have scope in the budget, it will be used to reward work and enterprise, and will benefit those on middle incomes and those who pay the highest rates of tax far too soon.

“High taxes that take away 49% of the overtime you do, the extra hours you work, or the pay increase you earned are a barrier to opportunity and to work. They are a cap on aspiration and there should be no cap on aspiration in the Ireland we wish to build,” he added.

Time and again throughout the speech, Varadkar, dressed in his black tie dress suit, spoke of rewarding enterprise, of giving hard-working people a break through tax cuts, and of giving increased breaks to the self-employed.

It was not a speech laden with references to social or compassionate conservatism, but one heavy with references about enterprise, about a culture of aspiration versus a culture of dependency.

It struck me reading it about something a senior Labour Party adviser told me when they were in power with Fine Gael.

“They don’t care about poor people, they may say they do, but they don’t. They really don’t because they don’t vote for them,” said the adviser.

It too reminded me of the four hustings during the leadership race when Varadkar went toe to toe with Simon Coveney, the merchant prince of Cork.

Coveney, a son of privilege, pitched a message of inclusion and spoke of the need to represent even those who don’t vote for you.

In the first hustings, Mr Coveney told the crowd that the party has to ensure they represent everybody, even the man in the sleeping bag tonight.

He said “who’s asking the question why aren’t they getting up in the morning... why isn’t our party helping those people not getting up in the morning”.

He said: “We need to help them to contribute to a stronger society ... surely that is what Fine Gael must represent.”

Mr Coveney also told those gathered to “make sure the path you vote for by voting for a certain candidate is a path you are comfortable with — that allows you to sleep at night”.

Tellingly, Mr Varadkar called his rival out on his point.

He said you can’t be all things to all men because you end up being nothing to everyone.

Moving to defend his controversial “those who get up early in the morning,” Varadkar said he was talking about the so-called coping class and squeezed middle who he said should be Fine Gael’s priority.

“If they aren’t our priority they’ll be nobody elses,” he said.

Now 100-plus days into his term as Taoiseach, Varadkar’s Ibec speech has made it abundantly clear that the quip of my Labour adviser source was accurate.

While Varadkar sought to emphasise the positives of his message — enterprise, hope, endeavour — his enemies immediately saw his speech as elitist, exclusionary and snobbish.

They have branded him as a defender of the wealthy, the champion of the privileged, the voice of the lucky.

Beyond the housing crisis and the increase in social housing, there was little about those who do not find themselves in the 35% of the population Varadkar seeks to represent.

“This Government believes in hope and aspiration, a better life as something to aspire to, and something to rise up to. It’s not something that can be handed down by someone else. The State can’t solve everyone’s problems for them, and most people don’t expect it to, but the State can help, and it should. It should see itself — and be — an enabler and facilitator of progress,” he said.

“Your Government does not believe in a culture of dependency and victimhood, where people are down and dependent. Rather, we believe in offering people a way up and way forward,” he added.

“Committing to building a ‘Republic of Opportunity’ means that we are proud of our ambition to foster a culture of aspiration in Ireland. We want to encourage people to reach their potential and to make a better life for themselves and their families and their communities. We want every part of the country to share in our prosperity and progress. We believe that this should be a country of aspiration, not of privilege,” Varadkar said.

In layman’s terms: get off your backside and go to school, college or get a job and stop being a drain on the State. This is Leo’s world — scroungers need not apply.

By lurching so sharply to the right, Varadkar is gambling that he can secure enough of a mandate from those who get up early in the morning to lead the next Government.

If he does, he will have to share power with another party or even the independents again so his vision will have to be tempered somewhat.

But if he and Fine Gael manage to keep ahead of Fianna Fáil, they will be in the driving seat when it comes to forming a Government.

The trick for Varadkar will be, as it was for the Tories in Britain once, to make as many people as possible believe they are among the 35% he is talking about.

On one level, Varadkar has to be congratulated for at least spelling out a vision for the country grounded in some sense of ideology, which is markedly different from his immediate predecessor, Enda Kenny, who muddled through on mere pragmatism.

It is not an inclusive vision but one that is divisive and Varadkar believes that if you are part of the 35% of the voting public who he can represent, then your future is bright.

Congratulations to the coping classes, business owners, the private sector, young families — you are welcome to join Leo’s exclusive club.