Mr McLay hits back

Press, 3 October 1985, Page 31

Mr McLay hits back

PA Wellington The Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, has again hit back at criticism from his former leader, Sir Robert Muldoon, and described comments by Sir Robert on the National Party as “irrelevant.” Sir Robert said in Sydney last week that he believed there was a 5 per cent chance that the Labour Government would go to the polls before the end of the year and win, capitalising on high opinion poll ratings after the Rainbow Warrior bombing. He said there was a 30’ per cent chance that Labour would go to the people before the end of next year, when it would also probably ’ win. He warned that National

faced a problem in the poor rating of Mr McLay. Mr McLay has dismissed those comments as “irrelevant”. “He doesn’t know what is happening in the National Party organisation at the moment,” he said. Sir Robert had not been a member of the party’s executive since last December, Mr McLay said. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, kept saying that he did not intend to have an early election, which, Mr McLay said, might be an indication that that was what he was planning: Asked how he thought National, now 10 percentage points behind in opinion polls, would fare, Mr McLay said, “I’m happy to take him on at any time, more than happy.”