Varadkar’s claims ‘not official view’

FINE GAEL last night distanced itself from claims by one of its newly-elected TDs that the party had made a mistake in “backing off” the Taoiseach during the general election campaign.

New election recruit Leo Varadkar, who is the party’s enterprise spokesman, conceded on Tuesday that Fine Gael had made an error in “not sticking by our guns that time and standing by a fundamental principle for Fine Gael.

“To be honest we were a little bit spooked by the opinion polls that were showing at the time that maybe a large proportion of the public at that time believed Bertie Ahern and sympathised with him,” he said. Yesterday, however, a spokesman for Fine Gael said while Mr Varadkar was entitled to his opinion, it was not the “official considered view of the party”.