Kenny on the ropes as support ebbs away

BACKING for Enda Kenny appeared to be ebbing away last night as he launched an all-out struggle to save his leadership.

After a day of tense political drama saw him shut down the shadow cabinet as half of its members mounted an open revolt against him, Mr Kenny was battling to retain backbench support ahead of tomorrow’s crunch showdown with Richard Bruton.

Critics insist they have already enough support to fatally wound Mr Kenny’s leadership at the 70-member parliamentary party confidence vote, with speculation that a delegation of party elders may approach him today to step down for the good of the party.

Mr Kenny has dug in, vowing to obtain a solid win and then heal the divisions left by the battle. And in an extraordinary move, he offered to re-instate the sacked rebels to the front bench if he survived the heave and they accepted the result.

After ambushing Mr Bruton with a surprise firing, Mr Kenny again deployed strong arm tactics by delivering a 14-minute tirade against rebels before closing down the shadow cabinet meeting and dissolving the body pending a reshuffle before critics got the chance to confront him.

The move shocked the pro-Bruton faction, who had earlier met with the former finance spokesman to plot their showdown with Mr Kenny.

Nine of the former frontbenchers, including Leo Varadkar, Brian Hayes and Simon Coveney, then went public with their demands for a change of leadership.

Kenny supporter Phil Hogan accused the rebels of behaving “embarrassingly” as they had launched their coup bid on the day the Dáil was debating a Fine Gael tabled motion of confidence in the Government.

Rebels spokesman Dennis Naughten rejected charges the group had sabotaged the Dáil attack, saying: “It’s never the wrong time to make the right decision.”

Kenny critic Mr Coveney admitted it had been a “hellish” day and the unfolding events would damage the party, while fellow rebel Michael Creed pleaded with Mr Kenny to save Fine Gael from a bitter leadership fight and go quietly.

The public spat further increased on RTÉ’s Prime Time last night whenKenny supporter health spokesman James Reilly insisted his side would win Thursday’s parliamentary party vote “handsomely”.

The claim was contradicted by Bruton advocate former enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar who said the opinion poll which sparked the crisis was “just a catalyst” to a growing concern over the current leadership.

In a late-night appearance on TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Browne, Mr Varadkar added he and other dissenters such as education spokesman Brian Hayes and communications spokesman Simon Coveney will not sit on a frontbench under the current leader.

Admitting he was facing a “serious political challenge”, Mr Kenny insisted he would not back down.

“It is about leadership and I am the candidate with a proven record of leadership,” he told RTÉ.

Opponents accused him of “ranting” at the truncated shadow cabinet meeting in which he sharply criticised the performance of Mr Bruton and some of his supporters.

Mr Kenny suffered a further blow as frontbench heavyweight Charlie Flanagan appeared to waiver in his support, refusing to repeat his weekend endorsement of the leader.

But the four Fine Gael MEPs did pledge to vote confidence in Mr Kenny as his camp and that of Mr Bruton scrambled to pull parliamentary party members to their cause.

Ironically, as he struggled to save his own political career, Mr Kenny demanded the Taoiseach’s resignation during the confidence motion.

“The pattern is clear Taoiseach – you are never responsible when there is a failure, If you had any integrity, you would have already resigned. If you had any respect for the people whose lives you’ve destroyed, you’d have already called a general election,” he told Brian Cowen.

The Taoiseach insisted he took responsibility for the decisions he made while finance minister and had acted in accordance with the advice given to him and accused Fine Gael and Labour of selective memory.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the Taoiseach’s defence of his record was “the thickest exercise in brass neck politics I have heard for a very long time.”