Failed Napier mayoral candidate Chris Tremain rules out a return to Parliament

Chris Tremain during the Napier mayoral campaign two months ago. Photo / File

Former National Party MP Chris Tremain has ruled out making a bid to return to Parliament at next year's general election, despite a return to politicking in his recent bid to become mayor of Napier.

Tremain, Napier MP from 2005 to 2014 and the only National Party MP in the electorate in the last 65 years, told Hawke's Bay Today, that when he stood down from Parliament five years, he had no plans to go back, and nothing's changed.

A distant second to new mayor Kirsten Wise when the local elections closed on October 12, Tremain's confirmation of a lack of a desire to return to the legislative chambers in Wellington removes one name from an almost bereft mill of rumours as to who the National Party will name in its hopes of unseating incumbent Labour MP and Minister of Police Stuart Nash.

But National Party Napier electorate chairman Ben Simmonds says he's spoken with several people who have expressed interest in the Napier seat.

"People have come to me and shown a genuine interest," he said. "Certainly I'm hoping the whole selection process will be completed before the end of March," he said.

The party's lower North Island regional conference, covering 13 electorates, will be held in Napier in May.

The party has confirmed candidates in almost half of the electorates nationwide, including installing a 17-year-old to contest the Palmerston North seat, and National Party Hastings MP and former mayor of Hastings Lawrence Yule, seeking a second term.

But National is yet to select a candidate in the Wairarapa electorate, which extends north to Central Hawke's Bay.

MP Alastair Scott, who triumphed in one of the election's few genuine three-way campaigns in both 2014 and 2017, against two candidates who are now List MPs, in June said he would not be seeking a third term.