Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd was yesterday admitted to hospital for surgery to treat severe stomach pain one month after he was dramatically removed from office by his own party.
The former Labor leader, 52, was admitted to hospital in Brisbane after suffering acute abdominal pain, a spokesman said.
“Mr Rudd will have an operation to remove his gallbladder later today,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Rudd, who is standing for re-election in his Queensland seat in Aug. 21 national polls, has haunted the election campaign of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who wrested power from him in a party coup late last month.
Gillard has publicly promised Rudd a senior ministerial role if Labor is re-elected, but her campaign has lost momentum amid damaging Cabinet leaks, which some have suggested may have come from Rudd.
Former colleague and one-time prime ministerial candidate Mark Latham yesterday challenged Rudd over the leaks, which revealed that the childless Gillard once questioned a popular pension increase for the elderly and paid maternity leave.
Latham, who led the Labor Party for 13 months before resigning in January 2005, citing ill health and amid dissent about his leadership, suggested Rudd had taken the “snake’s way” of leaking to journalists.
“I think it’s unmanly and beneath a decent Aussie bloke to act this way, let alone an ex-prime minister,” Latham told Sky News on Thursday. “So I challenge Kevin Rudd to be a man, to be honest, to have some honor and actually, if he feels this strongly about it, put his name to his words.”
A spokesman for Rudd said the former leader would not comment, but was committed to a Labor victory.
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