Ivana Bacik succeeds Alan Kelly with sole nomination for Labour Party leadership

In her email to members, Ms Bacik said that Mr Kelly's ousting was not just down to polling

Ms Bacik was the only name in the mix with nominations closing at midday. File photo: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Ivana Bacik has been elected the 14th leader of the Labour Party, pledging to re-energise the party and "confound" its low national polling.

Ms Bacik's election comes after a nominations process in which she was the only TD put forward and just weeks after her predecessor Alan Kelly stepped down when his parliamentary party lost confidence in his stewardship.

The Dublin Bay South TD, elected just last July in a by-election, said she is "honoured, excited and overwhelmed" by her election, which saw her nominated by every Labour TD and a number of constituency organisations. She said she hopes to win working-class and young voters back to the party with a "package of policies". 

However, she said her record in the Seanad during the 2011-2016 government in which Labour sat "is there" to be judged.

Ms Bacik said she had been asked the question about her position in the Seanad at that time, but said Ministers in the Labour Party at the time had to make difficult choices.

"That Government was one in which Labour ministers had to make choices that nobody would ever wish to make. But it was a government that inherited a country that had been bankrupted and brought that country back from the brink of financial ruin. It then left office in 2016, leaving the country in a much better financial situation.

"And I think anyone in their 20s today wasn't able to vote in 2011. So I do think it's time for us to move on."

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Ms Bacik said working-class voters who have left the party in support of Sinn Féin will not just be swayed back by one thing.

"What we're saying is that people from rural and urban communities, both young and old, working-class, middle-class whatever your background or ethnicity or whatever - you're very welcome to join and support the Labour Party.

"I think a whole package of measures will be required, a whole package of policies and clear communication of the Labour message will, I think and I hope, help to grow our party. It will grow not just our party, because it's not just about our party it's about the values that we espouse."

Ms Bacik said she is not phased by the pressure of the role, particularly with much focus on opinion polling.

"We all look at polls. But I'm conscious that there's a big job of work ahead. It's certainly a challenge because it's what my focus is on - growing the message of our party and growing support. We did show in the by election last year that we can confound that polling.

"And we showed that there's a strong appetite for alternatives, for a voice that is a strong centre-left message of social democratic and socialist values and that presented people a real alternative, not the right wing politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael or the so-called "only alternative" in Sinn Féin."

Ms Bacik said it is too early to say whether she wants Labour to go into Government or if she would form a government with Sinn Féin.

Mr Kelly, Ms Bacik's predecessor in the role, attended the event in Ringsend at which the election was announced, but did not speak. Ms Bacik praised his work as leader.