Standing a 23 year old Nat Party insider and ex tobacco lobbyist in the safe National (ex Bill English) seat of Clutha-Southland was always an insult to the electorate, but the good burghers loyally voted for the blue gumboot. (Labour’s Dr Liz Craig would have made a magnificent MP, but it was not to be.) Now it looks like the wheels are falling off Barclay’s bus.
It started with the resignations of long-serving electorate staff. From the Southland Times:
Unexplained departure of Barclay staffer troubling
Politicians’ staff come and go. But those like Glenys Dickson are neither flighty nor especially dispensable. She is a redoubtable figure in the southern political firmament, having served an extraordinarily successful 16 years as Bill English’s electorate agent.
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Dickson’s sudden departure as Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay’s senior electorate agent, in circumstances being described as an “employment problem” , was never going to be news inertly received in the electorate, in spite of his denial, when we asked, that there had been any falling out.
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The strong impression is that more must now come out into the public arena. That’s a view only strengthened by the all-but-simultaneous resignation of Dickson’s counterpart in Queenstown, Barbara Swan, albeit that this is reportedly on 10 weeks’ notice and for family reasons…
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The question must now be asked whether Barclay is in serious strife within his party electorate and whether this in turn represents broader community dissatisfaction.
This was soon followed by:
National party Clutha-Southland chairman Stuart Davie resigns
A third resignation has rocked National Party ranks in MP Todd Barclay’s Clutha-Southland electorate.
The party’s electorate chairman Stuart Davie resigned on Sunday evening. He said on Monday it was “untenable” for him to carry on at this time.
Davie declined to comment further, but his departure raises further questions about 25-year-old Barclay’s relationship with his staff and party members in his electorate. …
Barclay was forced to apologise for releasing Swan’s resignation letter to the media, the matter is under investigation by Parliamentary Services. As the plot thickens there are further claims that Barclay made a “secret recording” of a meeting.
With Barclay obviously in trouble in his electorate, out come the most senior Nats to try and smooth it over. According to Bill English: Clutha-Southland electorate resignations part of ‘transition’ to new MP. According to John Key: Number of National Party resignations in Todd Barclay’s Clutha-Southland seat not unusual. Yeah right.
No one is buying the whitewash, and yesterday:
Disquiet over MP Todd Barclay’s performance could spark selection challenge
Disquiet over a spate of resignations in Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay’s electorate could spark a challenge from within the National Party at the next election, a party source says.
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Another source said: “We feel we’ve given him a great deal of rope in order to deal with that, nothing seems to have improved at all.” …
Seems Barclay may not make it to the next election. Another imploding junior MP from the party that brought you Aaron Gilmore, Claudette Hauiti, Shane Reti, Parmjeet Parmar, Melissa Lee and the rest…
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