Labour TD Alan Kelly has said he will “reluctantly” vote for Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys in the presidential election, as he indicated his concerns about Independent candidate Catherine Connolly have “doubled” since the campaign began.
Mr Kelly said that members of the Labour Party had to consider which of the two candidates still campaigning for the presidency could best represent them.
“And I don’t think that’s Catherine Connolly. And by default, then what is left is Heather Humphreys.”
Ms Connolly responded to his comments by saying the Labour Party is led by Ivana Bacik and the party has played a “blinder” on her behalf during the campaign.
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She said there was considerable momentum behind her candidacy on the left. By historical standards, she had galvanised the left-wing parties behind her campaign more than any other politician.
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Former Green Party TD Brian Leddin announced on Monday he was leaving the party, citing its decision to back Ms Connolly’s presidential campaign and also an array of concerns about its direction.
Mr Leddin said the Greens were no longer “a party I would join, and so it no longer makes sense to remain a member”.
In a piece published on The Irish Times website on Tuesday, Mr Leddin criticised party leader Roderic O’Gorman for the party’s strategic direction, and its backing “a candidate of the far left” while arguing that Green members are more to the centre of Irish politics.
Backing Ms Connolly, he says, is the “latest effort by the leadership to chart a different course” and compete on the left rather than seeking to compete for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voters – and their transfers.
He also criticised Ms Connolly on several fronts, including her trip to Syria, her employment in Leinster House of a person with a firearms conviction, and her positions on Europe. He says the party’s support for her campaign “deepened my concerns about its current direction”.
It comes as the party confirmed that its deputy leader, Róisín Garvey, has stepped down from the position and from her role as a party spokeswoman.
Green sources indicated she had also resigned her membership. The party did not outline the reasons for her departure and the former Senator did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
In an interview with local radio station Tipp FM on Monday, Mr Kelly said a remark Ms Connolly had made about him to a local journalist in Tipperary earlier this month was “snide” and “degrading”.
She had been asked if she was winning over the support of Mr Kelly, and replied: “I leave Alan Kelly to deal with Alan Kelly. That’s a full-time job, perhaps.”
Speaking on Tipp FM on Monday, the Tipperary TD said: “That’s the Catherine Connolly I know. It was nasty.”
Mr Kelly, a former leader of the party, has made his opposition to Ms Connolly known since before the party backed her campaign. When it was put to him that some people might see his criticism of her as personal, Mr Kelly denied it.
“She’s the one who made a personal comment about me last week. I haven’t made a personal comment about her,” he said.
