Taoiseach Enda Kenny was targeted last night by pro-choice campaigners at a Fine Gael fundraising dinner in London.

The Taoiseach’s dinner was interrupted by three women who approached his table and presented him with a pair of “repeal the 8th amendment knickers”.

The three women paid £100 each to attend the dinner at the Crown Moran Hotel in Kilburn.

The protest was organised by Speaking of IMELDA (Ireland making England the Legal Destination for Abortion), an organisation which describes itself as a direct action feminist performance group.

Their spokeswoman, who would only give her name as Sarah, said the knickers were meant to symbolise how the Irish state had interfered with the most intimate areas of Irish women’s lives by refusing to allow for abortion in Ireland.

She said other Irish politicians attending events in Britain will be similarly targeted in the future.