Updated 13:12
A LABOUR PARTY TD has voted against the government over renewing the controversial bank guarantee scheme.
Labour has confirmed that Dublin North East TD Tommy Broughan has been expelled from the parliamentary party, describing his actions as a “grievous breach of Party discipline”.
In a vote held just before 1pm, Broughan voted to reject a government amendment which extends the bank guarantee for another year. The vote later passed by 99 votes to 30.
Earlier today Broughan had voted with the Opposition on how much time TDs should spend discussing the issue.
The opposition parties had argued that not enough time was being allocated to discussing the bank guarantee scheme in the Dáil this morning.
The Labour Party has confirmed that the move means the automatical removal of the party whip from Broughan.
“His actions today are regarded as a grievous breach of Party discipline and he has been expelled from the Parliamentary Labour Party with immediate effect,” the party said in a statement.
Labour chief whip Emmet Stagg has already informed Broughan that he has had the whip removed.
It was not the first time that Broughan has voted against his own party.
He lost the party whip in June 2010 over a vote on the Wildlife Bill, which contained a provision to ban blood sports. Labour TDs had been mandated to vote against the bill but Broughan, a long-time opponent of blood sports, instead chose to abstain.
He was quietly brought back into the party just before the general election in February of this year.
Deputy Broughan becomes the third member of the coalition to lose the whip. Denis Naughten lost the Fine Gael whip in July when he voted against imposing cuts to Roscommon Hospital while Willie Penrose resigned from the Cabinet earlier this month in a vote to close military barracks in his constituency.
The results of the vote to renew the bank guarantee scheme can be seen below. The green dots represent government TDs voting to renew the scheme and red dots are opposition TDs voting against. Tommy Broughan’s vote can be seen in the second block from the right.
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