Brendan Howlin rules out Labour leadership contest

Brendan Howlin has ruled out holding a Labour leadership battle in the coming months, despite widespread calls from councillors for him to step aside and to be replaced by his rival, Alan Kelly.

Mr Howlin said an internal leadership race in the immediate future would be wrong, while “crises” such as Brexit, housing, and budget talks are still taking place.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner ahead of Labour’s annual pre-Dáil think-in in Drogheda, which takes place tomorrow and Monday, Mr Howlin confirmed he has spoken privately with Mr Kelly twice since the Tipperary TD publicly called for him to go.

However, despite saying he will listen during the think-in to the views of those who want him to step aside, he insisted there is no prospect of a leadership race in the coming months.

“I’m sure that would be a lovely thing to do [to hold a leadership contest] in the middle of all the crises I’ve talked about, to go around the country and talk to ourselves again,” Mr Howlin said, when asked if he will allow a leadership contest, to end speculation over his future.

“Alan [Kelly] has had that view from the day I was elected, he’s had the view that he should be the leader, and that’s fine.”

“I applaud and encourage ambition, but that’s [a leadership change] not the view of the parliamentary party. So, no,” he said.

Mr Howlin said calls for him to resign are “undermining” his attempts to rebuild Labour and claimed the recent calls, from a significant number of councillors, for him to step aside, were just “a sequence of events over the summer, when you had nothing else to write about”.

He rejected suggestions that Labour is split between TDs and senators, who want Mr Howlin to stay, and councillors, who believe a leadership change is needed, saying while it is understandable to be “anxious” over the party’s poll position, it is important the party now “closes ranks”.

Asked about his relationship with Mr Kelly, Mr Howlin said “you have a professional relationship with everybody” and any discussions the two have had will be kept “to ourselves”.

The decision by Mr Howlin to rule out a leadership race in the coming months is likely to be welcomed by the vast majority of Labour TDs and senators, as only one of whom, Mr Kelly himself, has called on him to go.

However, it is expected to infuriate a large number of councillors, who want a leadership change before next May’s local elections, including 14 who publicly wrote to Mr Howlin, last month, to insist there is a “need for change”.

Looking ahead, Mr Howlin predicted the general election will take place in “spring or early summer” next year.

Mr Howlin downplayed the risk of a snap general election in the immediate aftermath of next month’s budget and before Brexit.

However, Mr Howlin said it is obvious there are TDs in both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil who want to go to the polls as soon as possible, but felt that it would be far more likely that nothing would occur until after Brexit.

“The Taoiseach, Leo, told me, some time ago, that he’s not going to do a Theresa May, that whatever the opinion polls say, he’s not going to cut and run.”

“There are clearly people around him who are going to suggest that [to cut and run], and you never know, the day might come where he’ll say ‘well now is my best chance’.

“My judgement is it [the general election] will be in the spring or early summer of next year,” Mr Howlin said.