Labour warn of Tory-like FG majority

There was a confident and casual air among delegates at Labour’s party conference over the weekend.

There were far fewer suits, and more jeans and jumpers, than at the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail ard fheiseanna of the previous two weekends. The attendees chatted in the bar, lobby and halls of the Mullingar Park Hotel. Although Labour is predicted to haemorrage seats in the election, at grassroots level a buoyant, realistic, mood prevails.

Delegates accept there is no possibility of returning the historic 37 seats of the 2011 general election, but grassroots members believe they won’t be hit as hard as pundits are predicting and spin the line that a Fine Gael majority government would herald the introduction of painful Tory-style policies.