Taoiseach tweet hits sour note

LEO Varadkar has offered to bail out the UK should they ‘need it for some reason’ during a Twitter spat with an anonymous online troll.

The row began on Saturday when an unidentified Twitter user responded to the Taoiseach’s call for Ireland to take a seat on the UN Security Council.

The account, which has just 26 followers, questioned how Ireland could perform in a leadership role, referencing the IMF bailout and the £3.2billion loan taken from the UK during the recession. They posted: ‘What the f*** can you, a country who borrowed millions off the UK, just to survive, offer anybody? You are having a laugh, another bad Irish joke.’

Surprisingly, the Taoiseach responded personally to the attack, to suggest that Britain may soon need a bailout of its own, in an apparent nod to Brexit.

‘Have paid back all we borrowed from the IMF plus interest & early, Ireland has no budget deficit now and we have a Rainy Day Fund. Happy to do same for UK and help them out financially in the future if they need it…’ he wrote.

But his comments drew criticism from the Labour Party. A spokesman said: ‘The Taoiseach no doubt meant his tweet to be tongue-in-cheek, but he has to realise that in the middle of sensitive Brexit negotiations his tweets carry great symbolic weight.’

But a spokesman for Mr Varadkar dismissed the controversy, saying: ‘The Taoiseach is an active online presence on Twitter. He responds to individual comments. It’s part of being a taoiseach for the 21st century.’

The jibe will no doubt be poorly received by Brexiteers, who have been quick to criticise Mr Varadkar over what they dubbed ‘megaphone diplomacy’.

Elsewhere, Northern Secretary Karen Bradley predicted that a second Brexit poll would return an even bigger victory for the ‘Leave’ camp. Her comments came after 700,000 people marched through London at the weekend to demand a ‘People’s Vote’ on the outcome of the Brexit talks, including an option to remain in the EU.