The chaos of a coup, without the leadership change. Most shortlists also have Auckland MP Mark Mitchell, whose name seems to come up at every leadership coup. He looked calm and composed yesterday, speaking with media after what must have been a sleepless night. Bridges is still in the running, as the NZ Herald (paywalled) reports. One is Christopher Luxon, the former Air New Zealand CEO who is broadly considered the party’s future leader-in-training. There will be at least three main contenders for the leadership. I wrote a profile on Reti last year that delves into who he is as a doctor, father and politician. Reti has spearheaded the party’s health approach in recent months. Speaking with reporters, Reti said that yesterday was “not our best day” for National. Shane Reti, Collins’ deputy, has been made interim leader until caucus elects a permanent leader on Tuesday. There’s now a power struggle within National for the leadership. Speaking with the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Dean said she’d mentioned her experience to Collins some weeks ago in the context of improving the party’s internal rules, and was “surprised and disappointed” by how her words were used by the former leader. Bridges apologised to Dean soon after and added that he has apologised more in the years since. He chose not to repeat the comment yesterday.
SERIOUS SAM 3 KAMIKAZE HOW TO
Facing reporters, Bridges explained he’d been speaking with a group of MPs five years ago and made a lewd comment about how to conceive a girl. As Stuff reports, some of that description has been challenged by Jacqui Dean, the MP involved. The former leader said she had to act after allegations of serious misconduct “relating to Simon Bridges’ interaction with a caucus colleague” were brought to her attention.
What did Simon Bridges say? At 176 words, Collins’ press release was short, but it ended her leadership, may have torpedoed Bridges’ much-rumoured run and has now left the party’s president facing an uncertain future. As Toby Manhire wrote in The Spinoff, National’s caucus was left with no choice and, in an emergency meeting yesterday morning, voted to end her tumultuous leadership after 499 days. Then, with breaking news banners, all eyes turned to Collins and the National party. Auckland barbers were only hours away from opening and the news that day had been dominated by a rushed government Covid-19 bill attracting criticism from the left and right. With Simon Bridges on a book tour and grinning widely when asked if he would contest the party’s leadership, Collins sent out an unexpected press release around 9:30 on Wednesday night, stripping her rival of all his portfolios after an “allegation of serious misconduct”. Judith Collins’ fall was inevitable, and after months of poor polling and questionable political choices, the former National leader finally made her caucus push her off a cliff.
National’s former leader had few good choices and left her caucus with only one. (Hagen Hopkins /Getty Images/Tina Tiller) Judith Collins demoted Simon Bridges, then she got fired by National’s caucus.
0 kommentar(er)
