Time to go, Howlin: AK47 comes out guns blazing in move to be Labour leader
LABOUR firebrand Alan Kelly has told his party leader Brendan Howlin that it’s time for him to go.
The ambitious TD – known as AK47 because of his abrasive approach to politics – as finally broken his silence after a number of councillors called for a leadership debate before the next general election.
And extraordinarily, after Mr Kelly gave a robust challenge to the party leadership on Tipp FM radio yesterday, Mr Howlin told the Irish Daily Mail that he was struggling to get in contact with him following the interview.
The Labour leader said that he had tried to call the Tipperary Dáil deputy twice, but that Mr Kelly advised him he was ‘tied up at funerals’. Mr Howlin added: ‘He texted me to tell me that.’
It was believed the pair were set to speak on the phone last night after Mr Howlin said, yesterday afternoon: ‘I am very anxious to speak to him as soon as I can.
He said he wanted ‘to find out what exactly his intentions are’.
Mr Kelly, whose attempt to run for the party leadership two years ago was thwarted because he couldn’t get a backer in the parliamentary party, told Tipp FM that recent polls, which gave the Labour Party a 3% rating, ‘are deeply concerning’.
He called on Mr Howlin ‘to consider what is best for the Labour Party, into the future’.
He added: ‘I certainly believe, from a leadership point of view, after two-and-a-half years, we haven’t been able to turn the ship around, we haven’t even looked like we are turning the ship around.’
When asked directly if it was ‘time for Brendan Howlin to go’, Mr Kelly said the party needs a change of direction with a different vision, ‘and I am not seeing anything to make it happen, so if it does need that significant change, yes’.
‘If the position was vacant’ he would put his name forward but ‘at the moment that is not the case’. He insisted the recent concerns raised by councillors were not ‘at his instigation’ as he was recently away on holidays for almost three weeks.
However, he said the leadership issue is something ‘which has been really concerning’ him, and one he has given ‘a lot of thought’ to.
‘There are genuine concerns, this is about my party, the party that was founded here in Tipperary, I’ve represented in the Dáil, Seanad and the European Parliament, and we are in a difficult position. Our performance needs to improve dramatically, we need to be relevant in people’s lives,’ Mr Kelly said.
‘My belief is that we are in a very difficult situation, we need a radical change of where we are going. This is nothing personal against Brendan, he is a friend of mine, I’ve great respect for him and I’ve actually learned a lot from him in many ways down through the years.
‘But certainly I agree with the councillors that have come out that we need to talk about how we are going to change the party. And as part of that, we need to talk about the leadership.’
He said he doesn’t believe the party is ‘connecting with people’, adding: ‘I certainly don’t believe, at the moment, the leadership, through Brendan, is connecting with the public and he needs to reflect on that’. Mr Howlin told the Mail he was surprised at Alan’s ‘unhelpful’ comments and that he believes he has the support of the majority of the party.
‘We will be successful if we work together, we certainly won’t if we divide. And this is, in my view, profoundly unhelpful,’ he said.
‘The people of Ireland are not interested in the internal workings of the Labour Party, they’re interested in what the Labour Party can do for our country and for them.’
He said this was a time ‘when we are trying to explain to people our very radical new housing policy’, adding: ‘We launched a policy today on rural post offices, we have things to say about health services, and back-to-school and education.
‘And they are the sort of things that I had hoped everybody in the
‘He texted me that he was tied up’ ‘Brendan is a friend of mine’
party would be on the airwaves about, not about any internal functioning’s of the party.’
He added: ‘I am the person who was nominated by six of the seven TDs, I retain the support of the majority of councillors, the majority of the party and that is the way it is.
‘There is no political leader ever that I am aware of that didn’t have some detractors, but right now it’s certainly the time for us to pull together and not divide, and the notion of embarking on some sort of internal introspection is not what’s needed.’
It was reported in recent weeks that 14 of the party’s 50 councillors had sent a letter to Mr Howlin requesting an ‘urgent meeting’ to discuss a number of issues including ‘leadership and the need for a change’.
In order to unseat a sitting leader, a no-confidence motion would have to be submitted to Labour’s central council and that would have to pass by a two-thirds majority.
Comment – Page 14 emmajane.hade@dailymail.ie