Justice Minister Helen McEntee has announced she will not contest the Fine Gael leadership competition after yesterday's shock news of Leo Varadkar's decision to step down.
It comes as Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has already secured enough votes from the parliamentary party to seek nomination.
Speaking on LMFM, Minister McEntee confirmed she will not contest the competition. She also declined to back a candidate.
READ MORE - What we know about the process to replace Leo Varadkar
She said: “I will obviously support whoever puts themselves forward and whoever is a successful candidate.
“I think as a party, we will remain strong and we will remain united.
“This is a decision probably made a year or two ago that if this was to come up in the near future, or the medium feature, that it's not something that I'd be putting myself forward for.
“I never rule anything in the future. I've always said that I'm ambitious and that certainly hasn't changed and that won't change.”
Simon Harris has shot in the lead over the last number of hours with nearly two dozen TDs, MEPs and Senators publicly stating that they will back the Higher Education Minister.
A number of members of the parliamentary party privately told the Irish Mirror that they are waiting to hear Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe's intentions before they decide who to back. Sources close to the Minister stated that he would be in Dundalk on Thursday and would travel to Brussels in the afternoon to attend the Euro Summit.
The intentions of Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys are also unknown, but there is a belief amongst some members of the party that she could be more popular with the rural voters.
Minister McEntee was the second minister to rule herself out of the leadership race. Simon Coveney, Fine Gael's deputy leader, told RTÉ News on Wednesday evening that he would not be contesting the race after losing out to Mr Varadkar in the 2017 leadership contest.
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