Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar will not stand in next general election

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced he will not be contesting the next general election.

The ex-Fine Gael leader said the time has come for him to “explore new options and opportunities”.

Mr Varadkar, 45, announced he would resign as taoiseach and Fine Gael leader in March, saying he felt he was no longer the right person to lead his party.

He then described his decision as both “personal and political”.

He was succeeded as party leader and taoiseach by Simon Harris in April.

Mr Varadkar made the announcement that he would not be seeking re-election at a meeting of the Fine Gael Dublin West Constituency Organisation on Tuesday evening.

He said: “I have been an elected representative for more than 20 years and have been elected on five occasions, first to represent the Castleknock/Blanchardstown area on Fingal County Council and subsequently to represent Dublin West in Dail Eireann in four consecutive elections.

“It has been the privilege of my life and I am so grateful to have had the chance to serve my community and my country as a councillor and a TD.

“I have decided that the time has come for me to explore new options and opportunities.

“I have never seen myself as a career politician and I am keen to see how I can make my contribution to society in other ways.”

He added: “I shall, of course, complete my term in Dail and will continue to be a full time TD until it is dissolved.

“I am making this decision at a time when the Fine Gael party is in good shape.“We have a new leader, a fresh ministerial team, professional and capable staff in headquarters and the Oireachtas.

“The party is well-funded, well organised and has had a successful local and European elections.”

He expressed confidence that Fine Gael could hold its seat in Dublin West and secure a historic fourth term in government.

The convention to select a candidate or candidates to run for the party in Dublin West is scheduled for mid-September.

Mr Varadkar’s announcement comes just weeks after former tanaiste Simon Coveney said he would not stand in the next general election.

The next general election in Ireland would take place next year if the coalition government runs its full term, however there has been speculation that a poll could be called before then after Fine Gael and Fianna Fail performed well in recent European and local government elections.

Mr Varadkar became Ireland’s youngest ever Irish premier when he took up the reins of the government at the age of 38 in 2017.

His rise to the top made history as he became the first person from an ethnic minority to become taoiseach and he was also the country’s first gay leader.

Born in Castleknock in 1979, Mr Varadkar is the son of an Irish nurse and an Indian doctor.

He joined the centre right youth wing of the Fine Gael party while studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin.

At the age of seven, he announced he wanted to become the minister for health when he grew up.

After succeeding Enda Kenny to the role of Fine Gael leader, Mr Varadkar held the post of taoiseach from 2017 until 2020, and then returned to the role in 2022 following an historic agreement with Fine Gael coalition partners Fianna Fail and the Green Party.

It was during a radio interview in January 2015 that Mr Varadkar came out as gay and said he would be campaigning in support of the same-sex marriage referendum later that year, some 22 years after homosexuality was decriminalised in the Republic.

He has been in a long-term relationship with doctor Matthew Barrett.

During Mr Varadkar’s time as taoiseach, Ireland passed the landmark referendum to liberalise its strict abortion laws.

He also played a key role in the Brexit negotiations, with a famous meeting with then-prime minister Boris Johnson at a manor house on the Wirral in England seen as a significant moment in paving a way for the deal on the UK’s exit from the EU.

The agreement staved off the prospect of a hard trade border being introduced on the island of Ireland, but it did prompt years of further political turmoil, particularly within unionism in Northern Ireland, over the creation of a so-called Irish Sea border on the movement of goods between the region and Great Britain.

Mr Varadkar was taoiseach at the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and announced a lockdown in arguably his most famous address while on an annual St Patrick’s Day trip to Washington DC.