Varadkar reaching for the stars in election/glitterball challenge
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar is in talks to take the lead in next year’s Dancing With The Stars – believing it could provide a crucial preelection boost.
The Dublin West dynamo believes a three- or four-week stint on the popular family-friendly RTÉ ratings hit could do wonders for his poll numbers – and his cha cha.
Even if he is voted off early, any poll bump could be the key difference in what is expected to be a bruising election campaign.
And sources close to Leo say he harbours secret hopes that he might just be able to do a general election/ glitterball double – a feat never before achieved by any Taoiseach in history.
‘If there’s one place where spinning is acceptable, it’s on the dancefloor. Leo’s keen, and if they can iron out his rider, then it could be game on,’ a source told the MoS.
It is not unprecedented for a sitting Taoiseach to appear on noncurrent affairs television shows – with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern famously appearing on RTÉ’s Premiership highlights show when he was in office.
But political observers have questioned the wisdom of the move, with an election expected within a year of today’s date – April 1.
Another issue is that so gruelling is the TV show’s schedule – Taoiseach Varadkar will have to step down temporarily from his head-of-state role.
And after a week of controversy involving Tánaiste Simon Coveney, sources close to the Taoiseach’s camp say if he is to step down – even temporarily – he will put in his own man, rather than cede the role to Simon.
‘The way Leo’s thinking, why not go the whole hog and let someone like Marty Morrissey run the country. We’ve had new politics, now we could have Government with the Stars. Even John Concannon has never had that good an idea.’
Government spokeswoman April Ní Fomhaill, who is paid an obscene amount of money, said: ‘We’re looking into it as we speak, and we’ll get back to you. But you know yourself, we probably won’t.’