What sent Nats’ disaster global

The National Party’s embarrassing infighting has gone global.

Leading news outlets from across the United States to the United Kingdom featured reports of the sorry saga – including The Washington Post, The New York Post and The Guardian.

Much of the attention in the New Zealand media has been on the spat between National Party leader Simon Bridges and MP Jami-Lee Ross.

But international news outlets’ focus was on National list MP Maureen Pugh, who Bridges described as ‘‘f ...... useless’’ in a conversation he had with Ross – which the MP had taped.

The US outlets began their stories by also stating that ‘‘turmoil in the conservative National Party escalated on Wednesday’’ when Ross released the secret audio recording.

In the UK and Australia, stories share a similar thread, mentioning early on that Bridges had apologised to Pugh.

Ireland’s Independent, The Australian and The Charlotte Observer from the US were also covering the issue.

It seems many foreign news outlets have been hooked by the fact Bridges was caught insulting his MP, rather than the accusations of electoral fraud levelled at Bridges by Ross, now a former National Party MP.