Bad day for National Party

electorate staff who resigned early last year. The investigation by Newsroom strongly suggested this was wrong, saying English knew Barclay had secretly recorded his electorate agent, Glenys Dickson, an offence under the Crimes Act.

English first told journalists yesterday he could not remember who told him about the secret and that it was ‘‘still unclear what, if anything, happened’’. He also said an MP recording a staff member wouldn’t be ‘‘acceptable behaviour’’ but he still had full confidence in Barclay.

But later in the day he changed his story and said Barclay himself had told him he made the secret recording, flatly contradicting Barclay’s claim that the recording did not exist. By saying this, English has destroyed the credibility of the man who succeeded him as MP for Southland.

Barclay has long been evasive about the issue. Three people left his office in a short period, but he denied any wrongdoing. He told electorate chairman Stuart Davie he ‘‘did not tap Dickson’s phone’’. This was misleading: he had left a dictaphone running in her office, which amounted to much the same thing.

Even this week he was still insisting he had done nothing wrong, while avoiding answering specific questions about the dictaphone. A politician whose evasions have been so comprehensively exploded has no alternative but to resign, despite his refusal last night to do so.

But English has also cast great doubt on his own credibility. His claim he couldn’t recall who told him about the secret recording was unconvincing. To change his tune so quickly afterwards after supposedly checking a statement he had made to the police was simply absurd.

A leaked police report showed English sent a message to Davie on February 21 last year, saying Barclay had left a dictaphone running in the office and a settlement with Dickson was larger than normal because of the privacy breach. This strongly suggests English was aware the secret taping was illegal.

There are now also serious issues concerning the police handling of the scandal. Police said yesterday they issued a redacted file after consulting the people who had made statements, which seems to mean they left English’s damning message out of the file because of ‘‘the privacy interests in the case’’. It is not the job of the police to prevent personal embarrassment to powerful politicians.

All in all, a squalid shambles.