Alan Kelly had last night failed to secure the support of any Labour TD to second him in his bid to run for the party leadership.

Mr Kelly had been hopeful of winning the backing of Jan O’Sullivan but she has refused to support him.

The deadline for nominations is at noon today and Mr Kelly's failure to secure any support means Brendan Howlin is likely to be appointed Labour leader today.

Mr Kelly had been hopeful the parliamentary party would allow members to have their say in a leadership election.

However, the TDs supported Mr Howlin to be the consensus candidate and have stood firm on that decision.

Intense pressure was being placed on Ms O’Sullivan last night to reverse her decision not to support Mr Kelly.

The former chair of the party’s Limerick branch, Gerry Burke, resigned over the refusal to facilitate a contest.

However, Ms O'Sullivan is understood to have insisted the party should support Mr Howlin to succeed Joan Burton as leader.

A party source said: “Alan Kelly had hoped the party would facilitate a contest. In any other circumstances he would have been right. The party is a democratic party.

Rebuild

“But with seven TDs and the party in the shape it is in an election would have done nobody any good.

“Brendan can re-energise and rebuild the party. Alan’s time will come but it is just not the time now. We need to stick together and not pit two of the best we have against each other.”

Ms Burton and parliamentary party chair Willie Penrose had insisted they would play no role in the race.

This meant only three TDs – Limerick TD Ms O’Sullivan, Cork TD Seán Sherlock and Dublin Fingal TD Brendan Ryan – could second Mr Howlin or Mr Kelly.

All three deputies backed Mr Howlin and insisted he should be the agreed candidate.

Mr Kelly said three people were deciding for 4,000 members. He added that the membership were “the most important people” and they should be entitled to their say.

“Joan [Burton] is out because she is outgoing leader, Willie [Penrose] is independent chair. So if there is more than one person putting themselves forward it falls down to three people to assess what is the right thing for membership of approximately 4,000,” he said.

“I believe contest is healthy. Any decision that is come to must reflect what the members want because ultimately Labour is bigger than seven TDs or five Senators, the 12 of us in the Oireachtas. It’s made up of thousands and thousands of people.”

Mr Kelly said no matter what happened the party’s constitution should be ripped up and revised.

Mr Howlin has run for the leadership twice before but failed to win the support of the members.

Mr Howlin said yesterday: “My only objective is to achieve what is best for the party. This is not because any of us want a particular job.

“We understand that we got a drubbing. We are absolutely determined to overcome that to rebuild our party.”

Nominations for deputy leader also close today. It is not known whether Mr Kelly will seek to retain that post.