MP under fire, but stands firm
Embattled Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay will not resign despite new revelations and an embarrassing about-turn from the Prime Minister, in relation to an employment dispute at Barclay’s Gore electorate office.
Barclay has repeatedly denied allegations he illegally recorded the conversations of one of his staff members, Glenys Dickson.
He is now facing an investigation by his own party amid new allegations his re-selection was helped by ‘‘delegate stacking’’ with his family members and supporters.
Prime Minister Bill English was also dragged into the mire when he claimed he did not recall who told him about the alleged recordings. He revealed four hours later he had, in fact, made a formal statement to police that Barclay had told him.
English’s stunning about-turn not only contradicted Barclay’s assertions the recordings did not exist, it also appeared to confirm English allowed Barclay to continue with his public denials, even after Barclay had privately admitted they did exist.
‘‘I had a conversation with him regarding Glenys Dickson leaving his office and he said to me that he had recordings of her criticising him,’’ English told Detective Superintendent Peter Read, in April 2016.
Intercepting conversations you are not a party to is a crime.
English, who held Barclay’s Clutha-Southland seat for 18 years, maintained as late as yesterday morning it was ‘‘still unclear what, if anything, happened’’.
Attempting to explain his brainfade, English said his statement was made 12 months ago. Following English’s admission, Barclay read a carefully-worded apology for misleading the media, but refused to take questions.
Barclay has been dogged by the allegations since early last year, when staff in his electorate office began resigning en masse. Some alleged the first-term MP had been secretly recording them.
Newsroom.co.nz reported yesterday morning that Dickson was paid hush money after learning of a dictaphone left running in the Gore office and then engaging an employment lawyer.
Barclay has refused to cooperate with a police investigation and has made very little public comment since the allegations surfaced.
Police confirmed they had closed the investigation, and there was not enough evidence to execute search warrants.
Late last night, Barclay maintained he ‘‘did nothing wrong’’, but apologised for originally telling the media he had not spoken to English about the matter.
‘‘I shouldn’t have been as specific in my comments to the media today about the allegations. For legal reasons I am unable to comment further.
‘‘As I’ve said in the past, this has been a steep learning curve, I still have a lot to learn. I’m sorry if any of the answers I gave this morning were misleading.’’
It put a cap on a day New Zealand’s youngest MP would rather likely forget, but instead he will be forced to turn his attention to remaining National’s CluthaSouthland candidate for the September general election.
The National Party’s rules committee, which is tasked with providing legal advice and support to the party board, is understood to be investigating nearly half of the 18 electorate branches in the Southland seat and could yet call for Barclay’s selection to be revoked.
Newsroom also revealed National was investigating the circumstances surrounding how Barclay’s sister, brother-in-law, aunt, uncle and a current electorate staff member all managed to become voting delegates in Barclay’s selection.