Kenny under fire

GEORGE LEE has thrown a land mine under Enda Kenny’s leadership of Fine Gael by quitting the party and confirming there are “large mutterings” about the leader’s position.

Fine Gael handlers scrambled, however, to limit the damage to Mr Kenny after Mr Lee announced his shock departure from both the party and the Dáil after just eight months as a TD.

They said the party leader had offered Mr Lee a front-bench role last week and regarded the former RTÉ economics editor as a ministerial certainty in any future Fine Gael government.