Winston Peters responds to Simon Bridges' 'my sweetheart' comment

Yesterday on The Country Simon Bridges raised a few eyebrows by referring to the Deputy Prime Minister as "my sweetheart Winston".

On today's show Jamie Mackay's tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the National Party leader may have changed his mind about doing a deal with New Zealand First was swiftly dismissed by Peters.

"Look I don't care what Simon thinks. When you say you're going to rule me out, that's fine Simon - but they're going to rule you out before they even come to think about me.

"I can see the National Party making the phone call anyway, regardless of what he says. So that sort of stupid talk will get you nowhere."

Peters wasn't finished there, moving on to Bridges' performance in the polls and saying NZ First was a shoo-in at the next election.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Simon Bridges on The Country below:

"In the end, it's very arrogant ... His polling's abysmal, I mean the internal polls of the National Party are at 25 per cent.

"I'd be a bit more humble about it if I was him, rather than going around talking about ruling out somebody whose party is definitely going to come back."

Peters then discussed why the rural community should vote for his party instead of National, despite NZ First working with the Greens, who traditionally butt heads with farmers.

Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Winston Peters on The Country below:

"Everybody out on the farm if they're actually honest has to admit that with the dollar being far further down than it was under the National Party - for heaven's sake it was about 80 cents US under the National Party sometimes - well we've got it at a level far more remunerative for farming.

"We're dealing with the Three Waters and the changes there will be of enormous assistance to farmers. We've made a commitment to ensure that the change was a change we would pay for - not them.

"We've been out there working our butt off to get international markets open for the farming community and we've changed the Resource Management Act as well which the National Party for nine years did exactly nothing about.

"So if I was a farmer out there I'd buy some serious insurance and I'd think about voting for New Zealand First on my second vote most definitely."

Also in today's interview: History buff Peters talked about the anniversary of VE day and discussed New Zealand's economic recovery after Covid-19.