Alex White: Labour won’t back Enda Kenny twice

The Labour Party will not support Enda Kenny’s nomination for taoiseach a second time, if he fails to be elected this Thursday.

The party is also set to lose a significant amount of its state funding, worth almost €3m, given its woeful election.

Roundly defeated in the recent general election, the party will support Mr Kenny on the first vote as a “book end” to the last government, but not after that, outgoing Labour minister Alex White has said.

Mr White slammed his party’s deputy leader Alan Kelly for suggesting “power is a drug” during the election campaign.

Mr White, who lost his seat in Dublin-Rathdown, accepted Labour took a “bad, bad hammering” last Friday week, and the party must now engage in a long period of reflection in opposition: “There is a lot of licking of wounds that needs to happen. In 2011 the people dispatched Fianna Fáil and the Greens from office, and now they have dispatched Fine Gael and Labour.”

Mr White said he accepted the election verdict but said he felt a personal sense of loss in not retaining his seat.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke, Mr White said Mr Kelly’s comments in a Sunday Independent interview in which he suggested power is a drug were “ill-judged” and did untold damage to the party’s campaign.

He said Mr Kelly as director of elections and deputy leader had to accept his share of the blame for the party’s slump in support, which saw them lose 30 of the 37 seats they won in 2011.

“I can’t say Alan is a liability, but the interview he did was ill-judged. The comments were ridiculous and not helpful,” he said.

Asked by Mr O’Rourke who he would want to be leader of the party, Mr White said the party and leader, Joan Burton, need a period to reflect on the position.

He spoke in favour of Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin who he said has incredible experience and good standing in the country but stopped short of saying directly he wanted him to become leader. He also spoke positively about Cork East TD Sean Sherlock.

Mr White was speaking in the context that the party has to hold an election for the positions of leader and deputy leader within six months of the election.