Casey: I’ll form New Fianna Fáil if Micheál won’t have me

PETER Casey says he will form a new political party if necessary, after attacking both main political party leaders yesterday – claiming the Taoiseach had made ‘racist’ and ‘inflammatory’ remarks about him.

If he is not allowed to join Fianna Fáil and to be ‘in charge’, he will set up a fresh political party called ‘New Fianna Fáil’, Mr Casey pledged on national radio.

‘I definitely will top the poll in Donegal when I stand,’ he told RTÉ, describing Micheál Martin as ‘too nice’ to take on the Taoiseach.

The surprise runner-up in the Presidential election then condemned ‘the likes of Leo Varadkar,’ who he said had made ‘scandalous, racist remarks about me and hasn’t apologised yet’.

Mr Casey fumed: ‘Of all the people, he [Taoiseach] knows that I am absolutely not a racist.

‘He knows that I have spent more time in India than he has.’

This was in reference to the Taoiseach’s father being from India.

He also insisted: ‘I can completely understand why Micheál Martin wouldn’t want me because I want his job.’

Referring to himself in third person, he said the Fianna Fáil leader was ‘full of nonsense’ and his party has a problem because it is so far behind in the polls and ‘needs someone like Peter Casey to shake it up’.

‘You’ve got to keep Micheál on his toes. I am going to go around the country talking to Fianna Fáil councillors and the like,’ Mr Casey told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 as he continued to refuse print interviews.