Ardern outs newMP’s wedding plans
It will be third time lucky when newly elected Labour MP Glen Bennett marries his partner in February, on the eve of his maiden speech.
While they are yet to officially confirm the wedding venue, Bennett and school teacher Jon O’Neill are looking at exchanging vows in the Legislative Council Chamber of Parliament on February 8.
The following day the New Plymouth MP will deliver his maiden speech.
‘‘All of our people are going to come to my maiden speech so we thought why don’t we just do the wedding the day before in Wellington and make it a two-for-one deal,’’ he said.
Bennett said an invitation would be extended to the Labour caucus but conceded the chances of Jacinda Ardern attending were slight.
‘‘Waitangi is a busy time for the prime minister,’’ he said, before explaining in jest how the country’s leader had earlier dropped him in it with his mother, who was yet to learn of Bennett’s plans to wed in Wellington.
‘‘I think she found out about it on the 6pm news rather than via her lovely son.’’
Bennett had filled Ardern in on his wedding plans when she was in New Plymouth earlier in the month. ‘‘The media overheard our conversation and threw us in the deep end at a press conference, so I had to make some phone calls to some family members to fill them in.’’
It will be Bennett and O’Neill’s third attempt at jumping the broom after they were forced to can their April wedding due to the lockdown.
A second bid, this time a secret ceremony with only two guests to serve as witnesses, was to be squeezed into the hours before the country was put into lockdown, on March 25.
But the celebrant fell ill and had to get a Covid-19 test.