TD Anne Ferris’s party future was under threat for a fortnight

Wicklow TD and Labour parliamentary vice-chair Anne Ferris’s party future was under threat since her decision two weeks ago — based on heartbreaking personal experience — to rebel against the Government’s redress scheme for women held in mother and baby homes.

The move, and her clear call for Labour leaders to allow a free vote on Clare Daly’s bill on fatal foetal abnormalities last night, made it almost inevitable that Ms Ferris would lose the party whip and be expelled from the parliamentary Labour party.

Ms Ferris, 60, is Labour’s only elected representative in Wicklow after last May’s local election left support decimated, making her crucial to the party’s strategy in the county.