Kenny poised to take Bruton back to frontbench

ENDA KENNY appeared poised to offer rebel Richard Bruton a return to the frontbench last night as a poll showed voters split over how the Fine Gael leader handled the heave against him.

As the Kenny camp moved to dismiss claims of a dirty tricks campaign centred on a “mole” in Bruton’s camp during the attempted coup, supporters of the ex-deputy leader indicated he was ready to serve the party again.

While the first opinion poll since the heave saw the party climb three points to 33% to hold a clear lead over Labour, 40% of those surveyed said Eamon Gilmore was their first choice for Taoiseach, with Mr Kenny trailing on 28% and Brian Cowen way behind on 18%.