The Labour Party leadership candidate Mr Eamon Gilmore has sharply criticised The Irish Times/MRBI poll on the party leadership campaign published yesterday as a misleading "bum poll".
Mr Gilmore claimed the poll purported to predict the outcome of the Labour leadership contest despite the fact that it had not been conducted among the party members who will choose the leader. The poll, which assessed the views of voters rather than Labour Party members, found Mr Pat Rabbitte was supported by 35 per cent of the electorate. Some 20 per cent supported Mr Brendan Howlin, 10 per cent Ms Roisín Shortall and 8 per cent Mr Eamon Gilmore. Some 27 per cent had no opinion.
Mr Gilmore said as the poll was conducted on a sample of 1,000 people selected from the general electorate, just two or three of them would have been people who actually had votes in the leadership contest. "Asking two or three Labour members their opinion and publishing a result as if it were a valid poll of the leadership electorate is a disservice to the newspaper readership." However, the managing director of MRBI, Mr Ian McShane, said yesterday the question was whether or not it was valid to ask the public who they would like to see as party leader.
"If it is, then the question as posed and the answers to it are perfectly valid. Mr Gilmore is quite right that this is not a poll of those who are electing the party leader, and we have made this clear in any public comment we have made."
Yesterday's report of the poll results said the survey represented the view of the public and of Labour supporters among the public.