John Armstrong: Worth's decision to go puts National back on track

John Armstrong

Richard Worth's resignation from Parliament is the right decision made at the right time for him and the National Party.

Not that he really had much choice in the end.

It is understood he was told this week that if he tried to cling on for much longer, he risked suspension not only from the National caucus, but even possible suspension of his party membership to boot.

The latter would have been a severe sanction and would have hurt Worth deeply.

The message that it was time for him to quit parliamentary politics altogether was pretty evident in the Prime Minister's declaration on Thursday that he had "washed his hands" of the MP. In case that left any room for doubt, the same message is thought to have been conveyed more directly in private.

Feeling among National MPs seems to have hardened against Worth this week ahead of what was an expected showdown at next Tuesday's caucus meeting - the first opportunity his colleagues would have had to collectively discuss the scandal that has embroiled the hapless MP.

With the media spotlight set to remain on Worth for the immediate future, pressure intensified to have his fate resolved before Tuesday's caucus and the resumption of Parliament that afternoon to avert the Labour Opposition and the media continuing to have a field day at National's expense.

The noose was tightened. Worth was told that it would be advisable for him to resign before suspension procedures were invoked.

Alternatively, National's whips might have granted him a further leave of absence from Parliament - but only on the strict understanding that his resignation would follow.

Had Worth dug his toes in, there was the third option of limbo as an outcast on Parliament's backbenches, thereby joining a not-so-exclusive club whose membership has been Donna Awatere Huata and Taito Phillip Field.

But spending the rest of this parliamentary term in the political wilderness was never really a goer for this archetypal figure of the Auckland establishment whose blood runs as blue as the National Party's logo. The choice was straightforward: he was either a National MP or not an MP at all.

His going removes one of two major distractions plaguing National - the other being today's Mt Albert byelection.

Come Monday, National will be praying the political gods will once again allow the party to be seen to be getting back to the business of governing.