Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has apologised to a woman after he sent her an email that said "Are you ready to accept you've just had a beating?" He later said using that language was not okay.

The woman had emailed Seymour to ask questions about how much money he spent on MP parking. According to RNZ, she is a survivor of abuse. Seymour's reply included the phrase above, which both RNZ and Stuff confirmed came straight from the email.

Seymour apologised for using language about violence in that email. As of 15 June 2026, the news reports do not say exactly when the exchange happened or what the parking spend question was about.

Some context

Seymour has faced questions before about how he communicates online. Last year, The Conversation reported that he had been posting content on social media that singled out people who criticised his Regulatory Standards Bill, with a label like "Person of the Day." At the time, Seymour said those posts were "playful" and "fun." Other commentators disagreed, saying this framing made targeted online hostility seem less serious than it was.

This email is a different situation. A private email is not a public post. The woman who received it was not a political rival — she was simply a person from his electorate asking about how he spent parliamentary money. The fact that Seymour used fighting language toward someone in that situation, and especially toward someone who has survived abuse, appears to be why he apologised.

Seymour has been Deputy Prime Minister since 2025, leading ACT as a partner in the National-led government. Whether this incident has wider impact will likely depend on whether more details come out — whether this was a one-off or part of a pattern, and whether Seymour offered the apology on his own or only after media outlets asked about it.

What we know now is straightforward: the Deputy Prime Minister sent an email with violent language to a member of the public who had contacted him as an MP, and he apologised once the matter became public.