Alarm within FG over snap election fever

THE Fine Gael hierarchy is desperate to dampen down party speculation about a ‘Leo snap election’ the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned. Senior HQ sources said: ‘The level and state of election fever is terrifying, TDs and candidates are losing all reason. If we are not careful we may stampede into an election before we’re ready. There is an air of unreality.’ An insider said: ‘The central air of concern in HQ is that people think we are far more prepared than we are. They are being beguiled by Dublin.’

Though Fine Gael has concluded 36 out of 39 selection conventions the party is deeply uneasy at the state of play in numerous constituencies.

‘Anyone who wants a Leo-snap should note we have more than a few basket case constituencies to sort out,’ one source warned.

‘Until those are done we could be the party that gets fewer seats than our percentage vote share. We could be throwing away up to half a dozen seats. At the utmost we would have little more than ten extra seats, which would still see us going cap in hand to Fianna Fáil, or worse still, others.’

However, one minister warned: ‘There is a bit of logic to an early election. Everyone talks about Theresa May but what about Gordon Brown’s fatal error?’

The former UK premier didn’t go to the country shortly after taking office when his party was well ahead in the polls. The minister said: ‘If Brexit goes sour do we really want to be at FF’s mercy with no mandate?’

Another senior figure said: ‘There are difficulties with far more constituencies than the obvious like Roscommon, Louth, Kerry and Waterford; there are at least six others.’