Penk won’t say whether he canvassed MPs about Stanford replacing Luxon

Summarised by Centrist

Chris Penk has refused to say whether he sounded out National MPs about replacing Christopher Luxon with Erica Stanford, leaving questions over whether the leadership revolt extended beyond the former minister himself.

An outsider linked to National told the Herald that Penk had been approaching MPs to determine whether Stanford had the numbers to roll Luxon.

Penk was repeatedly asked at Parliament whether he had launched a leadership challenge, whether he had acted alone and whether others had been involved. He declined to answer, saying only that he was “looking forward, not backwards”.

“I don’t need to address anything because I’ve been open about the fact that I’m looking forward, not backwards,” Penk said when pressed on Luxon’s accusation that he had mounted a challenge.

Luxon called an urgent caucus meeting two weeks ago after reports of discontent with his leadership. He survived a confidence vote, then publicly accused Penk of launching a challenge and removed him from his ministerial roles.

Stanford denies asking Penk to act for her.

“I didn’t ask anybody to act on my behalf,” she said. “I didn’t ask anybody to challenge for the leadership. I didn’t challenge for the leadership because I’ve always supported the Prime Minister 100%.”

Chris Bishop also insisted Penk had acted independently, saying: “People don’t launch leadership challenges on behalf of anybody else. They launch challenges on behalf of themselves.”

But Penk has not endorsed that account. Asked why he would not confirm or deny Luxon’s version of events, he replied: “I’m perfectly happy where I am now.”

Read more at Newstalk ZB

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