Uffindell under fire
New Tauranga MP does not rule out standing down after revelation he beat up a younger boy as a teen
I’ve worked hard to be a better person than I was as a teenager and to be a good role model to my children. National MP Sam Uffindell
National MP Sam Uffindell has detailed the late night violent beating of a younger boy that led to him being asked to leave King’s College while he was a student.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’S Heather du Plessis-allan yesterday, Uffindell confirmed the incident and said it was “one of the dumbest, stupidest things I have ever done”.
He also wouldn’t rule out standing down as MP.
Aged 16 as a Year 11 student at the exclusive Auckland boarding school, Uffindell and three others jumped on the then 13-year-old boy and began beating him with what was allegedly unscrewed wooden bed legs.
The incident reportedly occurred in 1999 on the last night of term inside one of the King’s College boarding houses.
It was reported by Stuff that the now MP for Tauranga apologised to his victim 22 years after the attack and nine months before he revealed his political aspirations.
“It was one of the silliest, stupidest things I’ve ever done. I really regretted it, I do really regret it still,” Uffindell told Newstalk ZB.
Police were not involved but he was asked to leave King’s College, and finished his schooling at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton.
Uffindell said at the end of the school year students went into the third form dorm and “raided them”.
With the boy, he said he punched him a “bunch of times” in the arms and body.
He and the other boys were called into the school the next day and asked to leave, Uffindell said.
He said he was gutted about the incident, had “taken ownership of it” and had thought about it for years.
He said he had “no recollection” of using bed legs to beat the boy.
“I still am sorry for what happened, I wish it had not happened,” he said.
When asked about the timing of the apology and whether it was linked to his political aspirations, Uffindell said it was “not what happened”.
He had reached out “sincerely” to apologise.
It had bugged him for some time, Uffindell said.
“I have never done anything like this before . . . I wanted to make amends.”
He said he fully disclosed the details to the National Party and was asked to “walk through” the story with the party when being considered as a candidate.
Asked by du Plessis-allan if he was considering leaving, Uffindell said he was “just trying to talk to you guys” and would travel to Wellington and talk to the National team this week.
In an earlier statement, Uffindell confirmed he “punched a younger student in the arm and body multiple times” when he was Year 11 at King’s College, but did not recall using a wooden bed leg during the assault.
“I’ve reflected on this incident multiple times over the 20 years since it occurred, and have no recollection of using anything other than my fists.
“Nevertheless, it’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done and something I deeply regret.
“I’ve worked hard to be a better person than I was as a teenager and to be a good role model to my children.”
A statement from the National Party said the party had been “proactively informed” about the incident by Uffindell during the selection process ahead of the Tauranga by-election.
“It was a significant event reflecting a serious error of judgment by a then 16-year-old for which he has apologised and regrets to this day,” the statement read.
National’s new Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell is not the first politician to learn that skeletons have an untidy habit of lurching out of closets with a horrifying rattle once you enter politics.
Ask Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was crucified after photos of him wearing blackface in 2001 emerged again in 2019.
Now, just one week after he delivered his maiden speech at Parliament, Uffindell’s past has come back to haunt him — and put a platter of trouble on National leader Christopher Luxon’s table.
Stuff reported Uffindell was kicked out of Kings College — or rather “asked to leave” — for beating up a third former with a group of friends when he was 16, back in 1999.
Stuff interviewed the man he beat up, who was understandably sceptical about whether an apology Uffindell offered him last year was genuine.
Uffindell is now fronting up and using all the right words — saying it was one of the “dumbest and stupidest things I’ve ever done,” something he “deeply regrets,” that he had apologised for the harm caused.
“My apology was genuine then, and it is genuine now.”
But it is a very belated fronting up. The National Party has confirmed he revealed it to them during the selection process. One of the questions all candidates are asked is whether anything in their past could come back to bite them.
But he didn’t front up to the people he wanted to vote for him in that Tauranga byelection.
He had a lot of opportunities to front up earlier — although they were not necessarily politically convenient times.
The Bay of Plenty Times did a Q +A with the Tauranga candidates in the lead-up to the byelection. One question was about their biggest mistake.
Act’s candidate Cam Luxton spoke about his drink-driving conviction.
Uffindell’s response was: “Not coming home to New Zealand sooner. There’s nowhere we’d rather raise our kids.”
The next question was what advice he would give his 18-year-old self. His answer was a glib: “don’t grow that straggly ginger mullet at uni then wonder why Julia doesn’t fancy you.”
Uffindell apologised to the man about six months before he put his hand up to contest the byelection.
It is little wonder that person told Stuff that when they saw that, they felt the apology was more for political expedience than genuine regret.
Uffindell, however, insists it was and still is genuine.
Luxon has stayed silent on the matter so far, but will not be able to do so for long.
It is a very untidy state of affairs, just as Luxon and National are trying to convince people they are ready to govern again and put the rogue candidate days behind them.
The latest 1 News Kantar poll shows that is not a fait accompli.
Luxon has had a honeymoon, pulling National up from the 20s when he took over to a solid 37 — together with Act, it was enough to form a government on that result.
But National’s support had dipped since the May poll after a messy few weeks for Luxon. The support Luxon has got is not baked in — or rising — and voters reminded him that Act remained a viable alternative. It went up four points in the same poll.
The Uffindell issue is another distraction he does not need.
Uffindell may well survive as National’s Tauranga MP, unless the selection panel feel he misled them or downplayed the incident — or unless more comes to light.
The bigger question is whether the voters who ticked his name feel misled and whether they can be convinced that his show of penitence is genuine.