IRISH Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced today that he would step down as leader of the country as soon as a successor is chosen.

Mr Varadkar said that he was quitting immediately as head of the right-wing Fine Gael party, part of Ireland’s coalition government. 

He’ll be replaced as prime minister after a party leadership contest.

He said that his reasons were “both personal and political” and he had no firm future plans but that he would remain in parliament as a backbench lawmaker.

Mr Varadkar was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. 

Mr Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first mixed heritage PM.

“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” he said in a resignation statement in Dublin.

Earlier this month, voters rejected the government’s position in referendums on two constitutional amendments. 

Changes backed by Mr Varadkar that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role in the home were resoundingly defeated. 

The result sparked criticism from the Communist Party of Ireland and others that the vote was a “cynical manoeuvre” to privatise “the responsibility for care.”