Prendergast still stands by call to oust Eamon Gilmore

Labour’s rebel MEP Phil Prendergast has reaffirmed her call to oust Eamon Gilmore as leader as she launched the party’s Euro election manifesto with him.

The Ireland South candidate plunged the party’s campaign into turmoil when she demanded the Tánaiste be replaced by Joan Burton, and insists she will stick to her guns on the issue.

Mr Gilmore said he fully supported Ms Prendergast as a Labour standard-bearer despite her opposition to his leadership.

Asked if she had changed her view that Labour needed to get rid of Mr Gilmore as leader, Ms Prendergast said: “I stand by what I said. I think it’s been a very difficult time.”

Referring to Mr Gilmore’s leadership style as the “elephant in the room”, Ms Prendergast said last month: “The elephant is not only in the room, it’s cantering around the room breaking things.”

Mr Gilmore has pledged to campaign for Ms Prendergast despite her repeated attacks on his leadership, saying: “If you look at the ballot paper in any of the three constituencies, the outstanding candidates are the Labour candidates.”

However, Ms Prendergast sidestepped a question asking if she would actively seek Mr Gilmore’s removal as leader if she is elected on May 23, insisting she would be focusing on the needs of constituents.

Junior Minister Sean Sherlock has dismissed Ms Prendergast’s views, branding them “silly” and saying it was difficult to take her seriously as a candidate.

Mr Gilmore attacked Sinn Féin and “ultra-left” candidates in the elections for having an obstructive and unrealistic agenda.

He insisted Labour had helped “the country back from the brink of bankruptcy” since 2011, bringing it to the “cusp” of a vibrant recovery now.

Mr Gilmore warned against voting for independents at Euro or council level, as this could lead to an “unworkable” situation when it came to major issues like drawing up budgets.

Labour is facing a nationwide rout in next week’s elections, with many observers predicting it will fail to send an MEP back to Brussels, as well as faring badly in council polls and the two Dáil by-elections in Dublin West and Longford-Westmeath.

As part of the Labour manifesto for local councils, the party wants “to promote a gender balance in the naming of any new monuments, roads or bridges”.