Prime Minister Chris Hipkins needs to explain why the Prime Minister’s Office has, for two years, covered up the existence of an email showing sacked Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash

was leaking confidential Cabinet details to donors, National Leader Christopher Luxon says.

“Mr Hipkins admitted in Parliament today that in 2021 Stuart Nash’s office told the Prime Minister’s Office that an Official Information Act request had uncovered an email in which Mr Nash gave details of confidential Cabinet discussions to donors. This is a flagrant breach of Cabinet rules.

“However, the email was deemed out of scope and therefore hidden from public view until yesterday when a copy was sent to the media, resulting in Mr Hipkins sacking Mr Nash from Cabinet.

“But Mr Hipkins’ revelations that the Prime Minister’s Office has known for around two years that such an email or emails exist, is damning.

“Mr Hipkins said that neither he nor his predecessor Jacinda Ardern, or their respective Chiefs of Staff knew of the existence of the emails until yesterday.

“That may be because their staff deliberately chose not to tell them, allowing the Prime Ministers the opportunity for ‘plausible deniability’.

“But Mr Hipkins’ revelations today prove that at least one staff member in Mr Nash’s office and Ms Ardern’s office saw the emails and therefore have known that Mr Nash was leaking to donors.

“This is a serious and shocking revelation, and the public deserves to know why, when staff in Mr Nash’s office and the PMO knew of his behaviour, he was allowed to continue in Cabinet until yesterday.”