“I didn’t challenge for the leadership.”
That’s the word from Senior National MP Erica Stanford who emphasised she “categorically” supports the Prime Minister following a tumultuous leadership bid last week.
National Leader and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survived a confidence vote in his leadership this week – his second in four months.
Stanford has held an impromptu press conference at Wellington Airport on Sunday, her first media appearance since the leadership spill.
Last week, Stanford – rumoured as a possible contender for the party leadership – did not immediately say if she had confidence in Luxon when asked by reporters last week at Auckland and Wellington airports but said in a statement later in the week that Luxon had her full support and the caucus was unified behind him.
Fielding questions from media, Stanford ruled out ever plotting against Luxon who she said was a “wonderful leader”.
“I’ve told you a million times, I support him wholeheartedly.”
Stanford admitted she “maybe” should have stopped to answer questions from media when walking through the airport “but here we are”.
“It was nothing to do with not supporting the Prime Minister, it was just not answering your questions because I’d answered them over and over again all week, and you keep printing the opposite.
“I thought, you know what? I’ll take a different tack.” she said.
The prime minister survived a confidence vote in his leadership earlier in the week.
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Asked if she would put herself forward as National leader should the party lose the election, Stanford said she had already ruled herself out.
“I want to be the minister of Education and Immigration – mostly education – for the next nine years. I love my job, and I’ve got so much more to do.” she said.
Stanford also denied she was the “numbers guy” for Chris Penk, who lost his portfolios in the aftermath of the confidence vote.
“I didn’t do any numbers at all. I can categorically tell you, I don’t know if anyone did do any numbers. I certainly didn’t. I don’t know what the numbers were.”
She said she had not yet managed to speak with Penk since his demotion.
When asked by media last week about Stanford’s potential involvement in the bid, minister Nicola Grigg described her as a “very good” friend of hers but “not a prime minister”.
Asked for a response to those comments, Stanford said Grigg was “one of my best friends in caucus” and she knew “exactly what she meant”.
“I’m not the prime minister, she’s not the prime minister, you guys aren’t the prime minister. We have one, she backs him.
“I’ve spoken to her twice. I’ve visited her electorate since, and we had a good laugh about it… I thought it was funny, I’ve already ruled myself out,” she said.
‘Nobody believes her’
Senior Labour MP Willie Jackson told RNZ he didn’t believe Stanford.
“Nobody believes her. No one who is aware of the situation, who followed the situation, believes her,” he said.
“We saw the way she walked through the airport [she] absolutely, gave no indication of support for the prime minister [and] the saddest thing is Chris Penk. He ran the numbers and people like her and Chris Bishop all lost their nerve, and we saw the most humiliating and embarrassing coup in the history of New Zealand politics,” he said.
Asked what he made of Stanford stating she did not answer questions because she already had multiple times, Jackson said “everything points to that not being the case”.
“She’s probably been practicing for the last five days to try and get it right today,” he said.