Outgoing National MP Vanessa Weenink says party risked being pulled "too far to the right"
Outgoing National MP Vanessa Weenink has said her party risked being pulled "too far to the right", in comments published by RNZ. Weenink, who lost the Banks Peninsula seat at the election, said it was her opinion that National had been pulled in that direction by its coalition partners.
Weenink described herself as a "squishy centrist". She said many people in Banks Peninsula told her they hated National in the lead-up to the election.
She said she was "gutted" to lose the seat. Weenink also said Christopher Luxon was the right person to lead the National Party.
Weenink said the Opportunity party had approached her to stand as a candidate in Banks Peninsula. She said the gap in party vote between National and Labour in the electorate was only 2 per cent.
She also said her constituents understood MMP, the mixed-member proportional system under which the party vote decides how many seats each party holds in Parliament. In her account, voters chose a Labour candidate in the electorate to limit the overhang, the extra seats a party can win when it takes more electorates than its party vote entitles it to.
