Key hints Epsom seat safe for Hide

Rodney Hide. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

Prime Minister John Key has given the strongest indication yet that National will not try to win the Epsom seat from sitting MP and Act leader Rodney Hide in the November election.

Mr Key said last night the primary emphasis in Epsom would be the party vote.

He said at his post-Cabinet press conference that Act had been very "supportive and loyal to National as a support partner in the National-led Government".

He said the Epsom candidate would be selected by the electorate but the party would campaign more aggressively for National candidates in some electorates depending on circumstances.

Asked where else the party would be campaigning primarily for the party vote he nominated the Ohariu electorate of another support party leader, Peter Dunne, the only United Future MP.

Mr Hide won the Epsom seat for a second term in 2008 with a 12,882 majority. He stood against National MP Richard Worth, who has since resigned from Parliament.

The win was part of an accommodation which saw National encourage tactical support for Mr Hide on the electorate vote - in order to provide a support party for National in Government - and to support National with the party vote.

Mr Hide's win in Epsom allowed another four Act MPs to enter Parliament because the party fell under the 5 per cent party vote threshold required for parties without any electorate seats. Questions are now being raised about National's strategy because of Act's poor polling and the strife Mr Hide and Act have been in - private overseas travel, the ousting of deputy leader Heather Roy, and the resignation of former MP David Garrett over historic offending.

Mr Key told reporters yesterday that National's strategy for 2011 would be the same as 2008.

Asked later if he meant the Epsom electorate or across the country, he decline to clarify through his spokesman.

Former Auckland City Councillor Aaron Bhatnagar is a potential contender for National.

The party's northern chairman, Alan Towers, said last night he expected the selection to take place before the end of May when the list ranking process would take place at the regional conference.