The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, has expressed his regret at the decision of the Louth TD, Mr Michael Bell, to resign from the party.
His resignation, following his defeat by a Labour Youth member, Mr Sean Butler, at the Leinster selection convention for the European elections, was confirmed to the party yesterday.
Mr Bell sent a letter of resignation to Mr Quinn on Thursday. But, when he failed to go ahead with a planned press conference to announce his decision, the party hierarchy believed that he might have changed his mind. All efforts to contact him, however, failed.
The party knew the resignation was final when Mr Bell made the announcement on his local radio station, LM FM, yesterday morning. He said he was disappointed with the conduct of the campaign leading to the selection convention and the way, as he put it, that he had been "directly shafted". He ruled out contesting the European elections as an independent.
