KEY POINTS:
Labour is set to continue with efforts to drive a wedge between National's leadership team of John Key and Bill English, despite the pair's insistence that they have a good relationship and do not have differing views on tax cuts.
Mr Key and Mr English put aside history
to combine as leader and deputy leader of the National Party last year after the departure of Don Brash.
While the pair's outward unity has not yet cracked, Labour is not convinced that National's leadership team can work and has adopted a strategy of trying to split the pair apart.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen has been systematically highlighting in recent months what he claims are clear differences in what the two men are saying, as Labour battles National's rise in the polls.
One of the arguments being made by Labour is that Mr Key has been pushing tax cuts at a time when Mr English is instead arguing for a tighter fiscal policy, and that Mr Key is open to talking about new approaches to monetary policy while Mr English is not.
Asked yesterday whether he was more circumspect than Mr Key on some issues, Mr English said what Labour was claiming was "hardly a sin".
Mr English said he was working well with Mr Key and the pair had a good, constructive relationship.
But he also appeared to concede that their language may at times have sounded a little different.
"John articulates a confident and aspirational view about the future, and I focus on putting together the numbers and programme," Mr English said.
"So naturally the language is going to sound a bit different."
Labour has made much in the House of a comment made by Mr English in March that it was not the time to be giving out extensive tax cuts.
After Dr Cullen delivered the Budget in May, Mr Key criticised the Government for not giving tax cuts.
Mr English yesterday said Labour was trying to portray that comment as some kind of different policy, when it wasn't.
"Of course we're pushing the tax cut argument," he said.
"We made it quite clear around the Budget that the Government had different choices it could have made over the last four or five years.
"There's no confusion about National's position on lower taxes."
Dr Cullen has also sought to highlight the National pair's attitudes on monetary policy as a point of difference.
The Finance Minister has pointed to a meeting in his office in which he said Mr Key was open to the idea of giving the Reserve Bank additional tools to fight inflation.
At the same meeting, according to Dr Cullen, Mr English was silent and his body language showed an unwillingness to embrace new measures.
Mr English later publicly shot down the idea of levy on mortgages, which had been discussed at the meeting.
Asked about Labour's suggestion that he had a different approach to monetary policy compared with Mr Key, Mr English said there was "no material difference".
"They're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill," he said.
"That's all based on what Dr Cullen says of body language at one meeting."
He said National's view on monetary policy was straightforward: the Reserve Bank's job was to control inflation, it had tools that worked and should get on with the job of deciding how and when to use those tools.
Mr English said public feedback had been consistently positive and he and Mr Key looked right as a leadership team and had good balance.
Two views
* Labour's claims of where National leaders are divided:
* John Key took a serious approach to private talks about giving the Reserve Bank additional tools to fight inflation. Bill English was less open and later quickly shot down the idea of a mortgage levy.
* Before the Budget, English said now was not the time for extensive tax cuts. Immediately after the Budget, Key criticised the Government for not giving tax cuts.
English has been advocating a tight fiscal policy, while Key is criticising the Government for running large surpluses.