Labour coalition pact - A credible alternative wins seats

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte advocates that his party fight the next general election as an independent party, but with an agreed statement of intent with Fine Gael to form a coalition government on a broad range of agreed principles.

He was firm on ruling out any coalition with Fianna Fáil. Labour would have more clout in government with Fine Gael than with a larger Fianna Fáil party, he argues. Much has been made of the fact that the Labour Party lost almost half its seats in 1997 when it had a pre-election pact with Fine Gael. Many of those who lost their seats at the time actually blamed this on the fact that the Labour Party had initially gone into coalition with Fianna Fáil for a period.

Prior to the 1969 general election, however, Labour decided not go into coalition with any party. It won 17% of the first preference votes, then the highest in the party’s history, but it lost four seats. Whereas four years later it only got 13.7% of the first preference votes and actually gained a seat.