Boag harming party by clinging on says MP

By AUDREY YOUNG

Pakuranga MP Maurice Williamson has vowed not to stop attacking National president Michelle Boag until she resigns, and yesterday he accused her of "disloyalty" to the party.

He disregarded pleas from leader Bill English to put an end to the warfare and blasted her performance again on his way into National's first caucus since the party's worst-ever election result.

But fellow MP Murray McCully came out fighting for Ms Boag - an old friend - and suggested that the caucus needed to look at its own performance, not blame one person.

As the blood-letting continues, there is mounting expectation even from supporters that Ms Boag will go for the sake of the party: the only question will be the timing.

Mr Williamson said his continued criticism of Ms Boag, who had won the presidency on the promise of improvement, was not being disloyal to Mr English.

"This is about where we go from here and about taking some responsibility. I want us to move on. This is not disloyalty. If anything, she is being disloyal.

"I think she is dragging the party down by clinging on and not being prepared to go. And I won't stop this until she says she'll go and then you won't get an interview out of me for love nor money."

National now has just 27 MPs, who yesterday passed a vote of confidence in their parliamentary leadership by re-electing Mr English as leader and Roger Sowry as deputy.

Mr Williamson's sentiments were shared by retiring MP Max Bradford, who was pressured to step down as part of Ms Boag's clean-out of the so-called party "deadwood".

He said her handling of the recent Serious Fraud Office inquiry into party donations in 1996 was a debacle that had cost National support.

"She has to go."

Ms Boag said this week she would not seek re-election next year. Mr English has accepted she could oversee a six-week review of the campaign but she is being pressured to resign before then.

Party sources said that if she digs in, her honorarium might be cut.

She met the party's five regional chairmen and chairwomen in Wellington last night to discuss the turmoil surrounding the election and finalise details of the review.







Mr Williamson said letting Michelle Boag oversee the review was akin to John Hart reviewing the Rugby World Cup loss in 1999 or a select committee of MPs conducting the review of the MMP system.

Former MP Wyatt Creech is the favoured choice to become interim president, with other contenders said to be northern region chairman Scott Simpson and central North Island president Judy Kirk.

Mr McCully is one of the few people publicly backing Ms Boag. He said it was nonsense to blame the president for the result and the caucus should look at its own record.

It was wrong to blame the president or the party organisation when 39 paid, professional politicians were in control up to the beginning of the campaign, "at which point the election was unwinnable anyway".

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