Rabbitte refuses to rule out coalition with FF

LABOUR leader Pat Rabbitte has refused to categorically rule out a coalition with Fianna Fáil after the next election, in an apparent softening of his previous hardline stance.

Since forming a pre-election pact with Fine Gael, he has repeatedly insisted his goal is to “replace the parties in Government”.

Asked last year about a Fianna Fáil-Labour alliance, he said: “How can people say to me I am supposed to provide full-blooded opposition to the Government for the next two years and then put them back in Government?”

But in an interview to be published in Magill magazine on Monday, Mr Rabbitte refuses to rule out entering coalition with Bertie Ahern’s party.

Labour members had understood he would resign before going into government with Fianna Fáil.

But he states: “That’s not my electoral strategy.

“My electoral strategy is to form an alliance with Fine Gael to offer the people the choice of an alternative government that would produce a fairer society.”

Asked if he was leaving room for manoeuvre, he responded: “I don’t think I’ve left any chink of light. Fianna Fáil have been running a campaign against me since the start of the year, starting with a bogus strategy document that they got published in a national newspaper. They’re selecting me out for negative treatment. I don’t think they’d be doing that if there was any chink of light.”

But he then refused to give a yes or no answer to whether there would be a Fianna Fáil-Labour government under his leadership, saying: “I’ve made it plain that going into government with Fianna Fáil is not consistent with my strategy of electing a Fine Gael-Labour government. You can draw whatever conclusion you want from that.”

Pushed again for a yes or no, he responded: “I’ve given you my answer. No one wants to talk about the positive side of my electoral strategy. Everyone wants to know what I’m ruling out. I’m ruling in Fine Gael and Labour.”

But Mr Rabbitte was much more concise on the subject of the PDs.

There would be “zero possibility” of Labour sharing power with the PDs under his leadership.

He explained: “Labour and the PDs are at opposite poles of the Irish political spectrum.”