1 Oct 2014

Labour leadership contest hots up

9:58 am on 1 October 2014

Any chance of a clean fight for the Labour leadership is looking slim after David Cunliffe and Grant Robertson yesterday took pot-shots at each other.

After a disastrous showing at the election in which Labour got just 24.7 percent of the vote, Mr Cunliffe has resigned the party's leader and both he and Mr Robertson are now after the top job.

David Cunliffe has labelled some of his opponents inside the Labour Party ‘beltway politicians’, but insists he is not talking about anyone in particular.

Grant Robertson says the beltway is not a term he uses, and Mr Cunliffe has been watching too much TV. (Stuff.co.nz reports that he specifically referenced The West Wing.)

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Photo: Unknown

And he’s not happy about David Cunliffe saying that some Labour MPs did not work hard enough campaigning for the party vote.

“I think that is an insult to the thousands of volunteers who put in time in the wind and the rain knocking on doors, delivering pamphlets and getting out the vote on election day.”

Labour's National Council meets tomorrow to discuss the timetable for the leadership election.