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Labour's wannabe leader Alan Kelly has put his foot in it again in his rush to curry favour with party colleagues.

The former Environment Minister thought he was pulling a bit of a stroke by scattering election literature emblazoned with his face and Vote 1 Kelly at the party think-in this week – no other party member brought along their own flyers.

But the stunt backfired on Mr Kelly, because in his rush to grab the limelight, he didn’t do a great job as his entire message on the leaflet is in LATIN.

He may have been trying to appeal to the classic scholars among the champagne socialists that Labour often attracts, but it’s more likely that it was a printing template that was accidently rushed through the copiers without anyone double checking the content.

Even at the think-in Athy, Co Kildare, the blooper did not seem to have been noticed by any of his colleagues, or they did not pay any heed to it in any case.

Mr Kelly was one of the most controversial ministers in the last government, with his brash no-nonsense style rubbing many ministerial colleagues up the wrong way, including some in his own party.

However, it was this same forthright manner that won him fans among others and he was one of only seven TDs returned to the Dáil last year.

This was a disastrous fall from grace for the government party which had returned 37 TDs at the 2011 election.

Party leader Joan Burton had to fall on her sword and the cocksure Kelly decided to throw his hat in the ring to be the new leader.

But in the event, he could not get the necessary backing of a single other TD to propose him as a candidate and so he never even got to contest for the top job, which went to Brendan Howlin.