Leo Varadkar’s ‘Trump defence’ over leak unlikely to go down well
Tánaiste likely to survive controversy but he and the Government will be damaged

Leo Varadkar: the affair will significantly diminish trust in him on the part of his fellow Ministers. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Part of politics always takes place in the shadows, and Leo Varadkar has been an able and enthusiastic practitioner of those arts.
His rise to the very top of Irish politics despite his relative youth has been eased by his ability to play a complex and multidimensional game involving friends, opponents, the media and the public, all with the objective of promoting him, his party and his political interests.