Henry won’t be added to European election ticket
THE Fine Gael National Executive has marginally decided against adding Lord Henry Mountcharles as the party’s third candidate on the Leinster constituency ticket in the June European Parliament elections, it was revealed this week.
And yesterday the 33-year-old Slane peer told Political Diary that he now considered himself a creditable candidate at some future election and he was not ruling out running for the Dail.
The Fine Gael National Executive met last Thursday in Dublin to consider requests to add Mountcharles wno was only defeated by a mere six votes for second nomination by Wexford Councillor Deirdre Bolger at the party’s recent Leinster Euro Convention.
According to informed party sources the decision of the national executive not to include him on the ticket was ‘very close.’
Some of the national executive members acknowledged him as a vote catcher of enormous potential and widespread appeal who had a definite future within the party.
However, it is believed that the decision was made from the point of view of electoral strategy, based on geography and the fact that he came from the same end of the constituency as sitting Fine Gael M.E.P. Mark Clinton.
Lord Mountcharles said: “I suppose because of my enormous showing at the convention, I had to be considered. The decision, however, was totally out of my hands. If I had been added on I would put everything into the campaign to maximise the party vote.”