Watch: Irish PM suffers Theresa May moment on campaign trail

Sign emblazoned with ‘new energy’ slogan falls down during Simon Harris’s speech at election event

Ireland’s taoiseach suffered a “Theresa May moment” when a sign emblazoned with his “new energy” slogan fell down at an election campaign event.
Simon Harris, who has called a snap election for Nov 29, adopted “new energy” as his motto since taking over the leadership of the Fine Gael party, and Ireland, in April.
On Monday in Dublin, he launched his centre-Right party’s new housing policy aimed at dealing with the crisis in affordable accommodation from behind a podium carrying the slogan.
The taoiseach, 38, said: “Housing is the biggest priority. What I’m saying to people now is we have a credible way forward. What I’m saying to people now is we’re going to do more.”
Seconds after he declared housing was his biggest priority, the “new energy” sign on the front of his podium came unstuck and fell to the floor.
The moment was reminiscent of when Theresa May suffered a similar issue seven years ago during her time as prime minister, when she was under huge pressure because of the Brexit negotiations.
Mrs May gave a speech in 2017 to the Tory party conference with the motto “Building a country that works for everyone” behind her. In a moment that went viral, the letter “F” fell to the floor as she spoke.
Mr Harris is now several days into his three-week sprint to the election and is enjoying considerable support.
He called the snap election after overseeing a remarkable turnaround in his party’s fortunes.
Fine Gael had trailed the opposition Sinn Fein in the polls for most of the past two years, but after taking over, Mr Harris outflanked the Republican party on immigration and Palestine, and overtook it in the polls.
He beat Sinn Fein in local elections this year and oversaw a pre-Christmas giveaway budget before triggering an election, which is expected to return the ruling coalition to power.