Leo Varadkar ‘most conservative’, says Elaine Loughlin

Labour leader Brendan Howlin has attacked the Taoiseach, calling him the most conservative member of the last government.

Mr Howlin has also said it would be arrogant to rule out doing a deal with any party after the next general election, but wants to double the number of Labour seats in the Dáil.

He also called on Sinn Féin to take up its seats in Westminster, claiming it is is Ireland’s interest.

Turning to Leo Varadkar, Mr Howlin said it vexes him to hear the Taoiseach claim he belongs to a “mythical European centrism” and pointed to the fact that he called for social welfare rates to be cut by a fifth in 2011.

“In truth, if you had asked me to pick a single representative of the last government who best represented the views of conservative Christian Democracy, I would have reached for Leo Varadkar,” Mr Howlin told the Labour party think-in in Athy, Co Kildare.

“His desire for deeper spending cuts in 2011; his initial opposition to repeal the Eighth Amendment and gender-recognition legislation; his campaign to promise to outlaw public sector strikes — all of these are very conservative stances that any Christian Democratic party would be happy with.”

While he said the Labour Party is not a party of the centre, he went on to claim no other party is either.

“That’s what vexes me most about our new Taoiseach’s claim to belong to some mythical new European centrism,” he said.

“For a start, Fine Gael are members of Europe’s conservative right-wing political family. They are not centrists.”

Mr Howlin then took aim at Sinn Féin for its continued policy of absentionism.

“I know it’s a big ask, but I want them to alter the stand on Westminster, and I don’t say this to score points, I mean it,” he said.

Citing Brexit, Mr Howlin said that when times change and when Ireland’s interest demands it, that is when people must “step up to the plate”.

He reconfirmed Labour’s objective is to rebuild after the dismal performance in last year’s election and to double the number of Dáil seats after the next election.

On going into power with other parties, Mr Howlin said: “The notion of ruling people in or out from our position, I think is an arrogance, so I don’t intend to start ruling people in or out because our objective is to build the maximum number of Labour seats that we possibly can and then we will see after the election what the profile of the newly elected Dáil will be.”