National Party leader Christopher Luxon says voters should have been informed that MP Sam Uffindell left a prestigious boarding school for violently beating a young pupil.
Luxon spoke to reporters on Tuesday morning, as the party headed into a caucus meeting. Stuff on Monday reported Uffindell, as a 16-year-old, was asked to leave Kings College for beating a boy.
Luxon says Uffindell was a person of good character, was fronting the issue and 'genuinely remorseful”.
'He is genuinely regretful and he's shown tremendous amounts of contrition and empathy for the victim ... He is not the same person that he was 22 years ago.
'He has my support. But clearly he needs to be able to build back trust with the voters in Tauranga.”
He says 'deep reference checks” were conducted after Uffindell declared his expulsion from Kings College. But Luxon says he should have been informed, as should have the delegates of the party's Tauranga branch and the voters in that electorate.
'I think the voters in Tauranga should have been informed so they can form your own judgment and should have had that information.”
Luxon says his 'thoughts were with the victim”.
'I can only imagine the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the impact that this event has had on them.”
Uffindell had apologised to the victim nine months before announcing his intention to run for the Tauranga seat, which he won in a by-election in June.
Uffindell told Stuff he regretted the attack.
'I regret it and I was really stupid and I'm apologetic for what happened, and since then I've tried to make myself a better person and set an example for my children. I've learned a lot from the experience from 20 years ago.”
Uffindell was asked on the campaign trail before the by-election what his biggest mistake was, but didn't reveal the attack. On Tuesday, he says he wasn't trying to hide from this past.
The victim, who Stuff agreed not to name due to privacy concerns for his young family, says Uffindell's entry into politics 'made me feel his apology wasn't genuine”.
3 comments
Let's Take A Big Look
Posted on 09-08-2022 12:02 | By Yadick
At the actions and lives of ALL MP's teenage years. Watch them all run and hide then.
@Yadick
Posted on 09-08-2022 13:27 | By morepork
The issue here is not about the beating, it is about the disclosure of it. Luxon is right; it should have been disclosed before this. It was serious enough to get him expelled, and so it cannot just be dismissed as schoolboy rough & tumble. He apologized to the victim 9 months before deciding to enter politics. Does that seem like a coincidence to you? What would YOU have done in that situation? I believe you would not have waited 20 years, until it was career damaging... Nevertheless, people in politics need to be squeaky clean, or they need full and early disclosure. Most of us are not squeaky clean, but most of us don't enter Politics. I'm prepared to cut him some slack and see how he goes, but his actions will be carefully watched until trust is established.
The Panel
Posted on 09-08-2022 14:30 | By Merlin
the panel knew and chose not to tell the heirarchy hoping it would not come out thus keeping it from the voters. Just more sagas and I wonder what will be next.
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