Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin has offered to meet all his councillors one on one as he seeks to head off a challenge to his leadership. “It is a divide and conquer type strategy,” one of those opposed to Mr Howlin said of his offer of one-on-one meetings. Tipperary TD Alan Kelly, who has ambitions of leadership, has made no comment on Mr Howlin directly. Earlier this week, Mr Howlin vowed to continue to lead Labour. Separately, Jack O’Connor, the party chairman, said that Labour should jointly organise in Northern Ireland with the UK Labour party if the SDLP and Fianna Fáil merge.

Source: The Irish Times August 24, 2018 23:15 UTC