Howlin Finally Ends the Shadow Boxing and Criticises Rabbitte’s Strategy. Is he Going for Leader?

Howlin is reported in today’s Examiner as giving a speech in Wexford where he critiques Pat Rabbitte’s speech analysing the Labour election performance. Contrary to the benefit off the Mullingar Accord, Howlin argues that the accord led to negative camapaigning which might have led to Labour being seen as “whingers”. He goes on to suggest that the “brand” is not a problem as such;

Our values are clear and well known. The point has been made that we succeeded in attracting a greater share of the youth vote. It is an important point. It does not suggest a crisis of values.”
…
“Our failure to positively, proactively engage in the business of government formation in the last 10 years has allowed the PDs to exercise undue power and influence in our society. Much of what is wrong with this country stems from that.”

This is more than a gentle rebuke to Rabbitte’s reasoning, it is an open questioning of his judgement and his strategy for the way forward. Many suspect that Rabbitte will not make it through the mandatory six-year re-election that comes up next year. However Howlin had kept his powder dry on the leadership up until now, fuelling talk that no one wants the position. Howlin did go against the policy of Accord at Tralee and has been publicly hostile to the idea since its inception.

The very public rebuke delivered in those lines, that Labour has values and that they were not made apparent enough during the election, that the brand is not the key issue and that the alliance with Fine Gael not only damaged Labour but saw it miss out on government, suggests that Howlin may not quite be willing to rule out another tilt at leadership. It suggests quite fundamentally that the uneasy peace which broke out while the party awaited a call from Bertie and persisted since then may be about to break, and break quite publicly.

Whether this is a return to the classic labour rift or simply a pre-emption of a leadership contest is likely to emerge in the coming months, one thing for sure is Rabbitte appears to have a little more firefighting to do.