Kenny calls on Fine Gael leadership dissenters to focus on work

Embattled Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told party colleagues who are calling for him to step down as leader to “concentrate on their duties”, instead of plotting to overthrow him.

However, the Fine Gael leader has once again failed to indicate when he will set out plans for his departure from office, risking fresh dissent before a weekly party meeting tonight.

Speaking at a joint Brexit press conference in Berlin, with German chancellor Angela Merkel, after a week in which a potential backbench revolt was stamped out by senior cabinet ministers, Mr Kenny said that, despite ongoing criticism of his time in office, his party colleagues needed to “bed down” and focus.