Adams entourage no rule breakers

The first shots have been fired in the National Party leadership contest with Judith Collins calling out opponent Amy Adams and her entourage for rule-breaking.

The pair, along with MP Simon Bridges, are locked in a running battle to replace outgoing leader Bill English; all three declaring their designs on the top office in different ways on Wednesday.

Collins tweeted her leadership bid, Bridges held a press conference, and there was a long walk to a garden-setup featuring a microphone stand, flanked by four other MPs, for Adams.

Collins said the last display broke party rules. It’s a claim Adams has rejected and the party’s whip has confirmed there have been no discussions around public endorsements.

She said the caucus had agreed to not publicly declare support for any candidate. Instead, the historically tight team would keep the debate and jostling in-house, to avoid speculation over factions.

Other party sources have voiced similar concerns to Stuff, suggesting Adams may have gotten the backs up of colleagues with her power play.

It has also been suggested that some of the National MPs who came out in support – Nikki Kaye, Chris Bishop, Maggie Barry and Tim McIndoe – could see the stunt backfire and dampen their prospects if one of the other candidates wins.

Adams said she would not discuss what the caucus had and had not decided. ‘‘But what I can tell you that I’m absolutely 100 per cent confident and clear that I haven’t broken any caucus rules.’’

Adams said it was ‘‘up to Judith how she wants to run her campaign’’, though she would not comment on her rival’s motivations. Her own campaign was ‘‘energised’’ and gaining momentum but she would not discuss numbers.

Bridges also refused to comment on internal caucus discussions.

‘‘Look, I’ve been there before in the deputy leader contest, people were coming out in support of me or Paula. My view is that’s not something I want to see happen for me or my supporters or something I’m going to be encouraging.’’

The process was not necessarily private but was about ‘‘members talking to members’’.

Bridges said he had good support. ‘‘I feel like the momentum is building as I talk to people and hear what they’re thinking and giving them my pitch. But I’m certainly not counting my chickens.’’

The party’s senior whip, JamiLee Ross, refused to go into detail on the party’s internal caucus discussions. But he said in a statement that no rules around endorsements had been set.

‘‘While discussion took place, no caucus decision was made regarding MPs taking a public position in endorsing a candidate for leader of the National Party.’’

Bishop also said no rules had been broken. ‘‘I haven’t seen Judith’s comment but there’s nothing to stop people endorsing leadership candidates.

‘‘It happened in the transition from John Key to Bill English, it’s obviously happened in relation to Amy. There may be others that come out over the next few weeks and endorse candidates, we’ll just have to wait and see.’’

Bishop had no concerns that his endorsement could dampen his own prospects. ‘‘We’re a unified team in the National Party, we certainly will be after the leader contest is over.

❚ National’s ‘Jacinda’ candidate,

A4