Rabbitte "not fit" to be Labour leader, says local Labour councillor

sligo | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday August 31, 2006 13:16 by N McDevitt

Sligo Labour Councillor Declan Bree, has claimed Pat Rabbitte is not fit to be his party's leader, and has stated thathe would not be meeting or welcoming him when he visits Sligo tomorrow.

Cllr Bree says given what he calls the outrageous allegations Mr Rabbitte made about him in the “Irish Times” last September, he has no intention of making him feel welcome in Sligo.

Mr Rabbitte had claimed that Cllr Bree used his position as Mayor to stop a traveller accommodation site going into his own electoral ward and sought to put it into the ward of a colleague that already has three such sites.

His says the minutes of the Council meeting concerned proves this was not the case.

Mr Rabbittes outrageous attack, says Cllr Bree, can not be ignored.

Never in the history of the Labour Party has a Party leader attempted to vilify and smear a Labour Party colleague in such a manner, he maintains.