Your paper has made much of a YouGov/Election Data poll claiming to be of Unite members and purporting to put Unite members at odds with their union’s support for Jeremy Corbyn (Weekend respite as Watson seeks talks on Corbyn exit, 2 July). Your readers need to know two things about that poll. One, Unite did not collaborate in this poll and there appears to be no effort by YouGov to explain how it confirmed those polled as definitely being members of this union. Two, a sample of 775 out of a union with a membership of over 1.4 million members cannot be regarded as a serious indicator of the feelings of Unite members, especially when half of those polled are not even Labour voters. Without access to Unite’s membership database, there is no way the poll could be properly weighted to represent the membership either. This poll lacks any integrity and is a malicious attempt to undermine Unite’s democracy.

Len McCluskey

General Secretary, Unite