Bridges is ‘done’ with Ross saga

National Party leader Simon Bridges says he is not spending any more time talking about his erstwhile friend, exiled MP Jamilee Ross.

It follows the release of a new recording on Monday, which captured an October conversation between Bridges, Ross and deputy leader Paula Bennett. In the fallout of a bust-up between Ross and his former colleagues, it has emerged Ross had been taping conversations with National’s leadership team and other caucus members for months and his camp appears to be drip-feeding the tapes into the public sphere.

Bridges was forced to answer several questions about the latest recording on Monday, immediately after its release to the AM Show. The conversation centred on a plan to announce Ross’ impending long-term leave and demotion. It also appeared to suggest if Ross complied with the strategy, there was a path back to his original high status, despite some of the issues relating to a growing string of complaints of misconduct from several women.

Yesterday, Bridges repeated his rejection of claims the party was protecting Ross at the expense of the women, but said he was finished talking about it further. ‘‘I am done talking about Jami-lee Ross . . . I’ve already discussed in relation to those things.

‘If people want to listen to the tape, they can do that, but I’m done with it.’ Simon Bridges

They weren’t at the level of formal complaints, we dealt with them as the women involved wanted us to.’’‘‘i answered those questions very clearly yesterday. I was balancing two matters; I was balancing Jami-lee Ross and his health, with the allegations and those matters,’’ he said.

Ahead of the National Party’s weekly caucus meeting, Bridges stopped to hear questions from reporters. But asked to elaborate on the nature of Ross’ conduct issues, his disloyalty and whether there could have been a place for him to return to, Bridges would only refer to interviews given on Monday and said people could now assess the tapes for themselves.

‘‘Every time a tape comes out, I’m not going to talk about it. I answered questions yesterday on this – I’m done talking about him. If people want to listen to the tape, they can do that, but I’m done with it.’’