OUT OF OFFICE

Varadkar swaps constituency base for industrial estate postal address

- FERGHAL BLANEY

LEO Varadkar has shut his constituency office and left a postal address in an industrial estate as his official point of contact for voters seeking representative help.

This follows the Taoiseach's moving out of the constituency when he moved in with his partner Matt Barrett at his home in Portobello, on Dublin's southside.

This is a different constituency, Dublin Bay South, to Dublin West where Mr Varadkar was elected and where he grew up.

It is not unknown for politicians to live in different constituencies and there are no rules against running in any constituency they want.

But one Fine Gael political ally said last night that it was a strange move" and that "you'd wonder if he is checking out, thinking of giving up ahead of an election we won't win".