New bloodbath opens as Kenny fights for survival

IN a recent interview, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told how it was impossible to have true friends in politics. “The only friends you have in politics are your family,” he said, as they were the only people “that you can actually trust”.

Enda Kenny and Richard Bruton will know the truth of that statement today.

When Kenny became leader in 2002, he appointed Bruton his deputy. On the many previous occasions that Kenny’s leadership was under threat, Bruton stood by him. The perception grew that Bruton was too loyal, and would never wield the knife against Kenny. All that changed – and changed utterly – in the past few days.

Bruton had lost confidence in Kenny’s leadership and told him so. He began actively canvassing support for a heave. After unsuccessfully attempting to talk Bruton out of it, Kenny responded in brutal fashion yesterday: sacking his friend as deputy leader and removing him from the Fine Gael frontbench.

The action doesn’t remove the threat to Kenny. But it will perhaps have bought him a little bit of time. Had Bruton been left in place he would have attended this morning’s frontbench meeting and called for a change in leadership. Kenny most likely would have had no other option but to call one-by-one on his front bench members to support him. Had the numbers gone against him, Kenny would effectively have been finished.

Instead, Kenny has asked that a motion of confidence in his leadership be tabled at a meeting of the parliamentary party on Thursday and says he expects to win.

But the front bench meeting was where the real danger lurked. Had Bruton been present to push the issue, and if a majority of the frontbench signalled that they had lost confidence in Kenny, the contagion would have spread to the parliamentary party. Kenny would have been toast. He may still be.

Prior to Bruton being sacked, the growing belief in political circles was that he had the numbers on his side.

Kenny’s handlers insisted otherwise.

His decision to sack Bruton will be seen as an indication that Kenny himself felt he had lost his front bench.

It’s the worst possible development for Fine Gael. The leader and deputy leader are at war. Kenny has implicitly threatened to axe Bruton supporters from his front bench. He’s admitted that, even if he survives, he will have to rebuild the party all over again.

A new Fine Gael bloodbath has begun.