Indian-origin gay minister to be Irish PM

The popular minister has campaigned for same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws

Leo Varadkar, an Indian-origin doctor and Ireland’s first openly gay minister, on Friday won the leadership race for the ruling party to become the country’s youngest-ever and first homosexual prime minister-in-waiting.

Varadkar, 38, will officially take over as Taoiseach, as the Irish prime ministerial title is known in Ireland, in Parliament later this month after he was declared the winner in the leadership race for the Fine Gael party.

He took a majority of the votes to be declared as the 11th leader of the party as counting concluded at Mansion House in Dublin.

The final count, including all three electoral colleges, saw