PM throws Lester under bus

It seems Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has thrown deposed Labour Wellington mayor Justin Lester under a Wellington bus.

Lester may still be licking his wounds after losing out to Andy Foster but Ardern seems to have poured salt all over them and cut ties with him – in a very obvious slip of the tongue.

Yesterday, during her weekly post-Cabinet press conference, Ardern swiftly distanced the former mayor from the Labour Party by incorrectly stating that he had run this election as an independent.

However, Lester went through an official process to become the party’s official candidate – unlike Phil Goff, for example, who was only Labourendorsed.

Voting papers stated Lester as Labour candidate and all his campaign paraphernalia was Labour Party-branded.

However, the party branding was not as obvious as Labour might have liked. Some believe that more branding might have helped his campaign.

Lester, who was once feted as Labour’s golden ticket and potential national leadership material – before Jacindamania hit – is understood to have recently fallen out of favour with senior Labour Party officials for not toeing the party line.

When Stuff corrected Ardern, asking if she made an

error, she said: ‘‘No. My reference there, in terms of the way he branded himself during the campaign, wasn’t overt in that regard.’’

Ardern said she did not see it as a sign that Labour was on the nose nationally, rejecting a link between local results and the party’s fortunes across the country.

In the 2017 election, Labour had touted Lester’s winning campaign as an example of what could be achieved nationally.

When asked what signal his failure would send, Ardern said it was premature to make any direct assumptions.