Keaveney fires parting shot at Labour

The leadership of the Labour Party was branded arrogant yesterday in a parting shot from Galway East TD Colm Keaveney, who stepped down as chairperson of the party and resigned his membership.

A staunch supporter of the Labour Party since his days in student politics in Letterkenny in the early 1990s, the Tuam-based deputy said he could no longer remain in a party that wasn’t holding true to its proud values and tradition.

He resigned, he said, because Labour in Government inflicted savage cuts that were targeting vulnerable groups of people “least able to defend themselves”.

Labour leader Éamon Gilmore will hardly shed a tear at the resignation given that Keaveney has been a constant critic of the leadership in Government but it does heap pressure on the Tánaiste, who has seen several party TDs ‘jump ship’.

Another Labour member who won’t be shedding any tears is Athenry-based Senator Lorraine Higgins, who will now almost certainly be the sole party candidate in the new Galway East constituency at the next election.

“Too many at the cabinet table are willing to trade what they held dear for one more hour in the sun,” he said of the party leadership in a resignation statement issued on Wednesday.

The former SIPTU trade union representative said the policy-makers in the party and its senior figures had effectively abandoned the core values of Labour.

 Sources close to Keaveney said that he will run as an independent candidate in the next general election although he didn’t rule out rejoining the party if there was a change of direction and a change of leadership.

For more on this story see today’s Connacht Tribune