Kerrin Leoni says she will sit as an independent MP if she wins the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate.
This comes three days after Leoni resigned as Labour’s candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat following a video that surfaced showing her wearing Labour gear and holding her campaign hoarding at a whānau fundraising event in Papakura attended by Mongrel Mob members on 3 October.
Leoni says the decision followed several difficult days of reflection and conversations with people who contacted her after Friday’s announcement.
“When I resigned from Labour for the seat, I genuinely believed I was doing the right thing. I did not want the controversy surrounding me and my whānau to become a distraction from Labour’s wider campaign.
“I have been overwhelmed by the messages, phone calls, and encouragement from whānau, supporters, and people across Tāmaki Makaurau asking me not to walk away,” she says.
With nominations closed, Leoni’s name remains on the ballot with Labour’s name and logo.
This means people enrolled in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate can still vote for Kerrin Leoni. The Electoral Commission has confirmed a vote for Leoni is valid and counted.
“I am no longer an endorsed candidate for the Labour Party,” says Leoni.
The Electoral Commission confirmed she remains on Labour’s party list. Whether Labour could use the party-hopping law to challenge her seat, given her name appears beside its logo, has not been tested.
Leoni acknowledged that her decision to continue in the race for the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate seat had not been taken lightly.
“I’ve had to ask myself some difficult questions over the past few days. I recognise that people will have different views about the circumstances surrounding my resignation, and I respect that.
“But I also know why I entered politics in the first place. It was to make a difference for our whānau, our tamariki, and our mokopuna. That hasn’t changed,” she says.
The issue was first raised last Wednesday during the Whakaata Māori election debate for Tāmaki Makaurau, when Te Pāti Māori incumbent Oriini Kaipara defended her visit to a Mongrel Mob gang pad.
Kaipara, along with other Te Pāti Māori and Green MPs and candidates, had visited the Mongrel Mob’s Auckland pad the week before the debate for a health and wellbeing event.
Debate moderator Julian Wilcox asked Leoni whether she agreed with Kaipara’s visit.
“Well actually I disagree with that,” Leoni said.
She said the focus should be on “the core issues that we have at hand at the moment”.
Kaipara then alleged that Leoni had visited the same location a week earlier, claiming a social media post about the visit was removed after it attracted attention.
Debate moderator Maiki Sherman then interjected, saying to Leoni, “Did you go there the week before?”
Leoni denied going to the gang pad.
The media picked up on this exchange the day after, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins weighing in, initially saying he was taking her at her word. After Leoni’s resignation, Hipkins said: “I have made it very clear that campaigning alongside gangs is unacceptable.”
Speaking to Te Ao Māori News, Leoni says that after watching the debate back, she could see how her answer, put to her live on air, may have looked.
She believes she answered truthfully, because she was not at the gang pad Kaipara described, but accepts she may have disappointed people by not giving the full context. She says she has learnt from it.
“Like many Māori whānau, my whānau comes from all walks of life. Some have faced difficult circumstances, and some have made choices I would not necessarily agree with. But they are still my whānau,” she says.
Leoni says her priorities for Tāmaki Makaurau remain unchanged.
“My values have not changed. My commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi has not changed. And my belief that our whānau deserve better has certainly not changed.
“If I am fortunate enough to be elected, I will work constructively with anyone who shares a genuine commitment to improving the lives of our people,” she says.
The decision belongs to the voters
While Leoni’s political circumstances have changed, she says her commitment to her people has not, and having started this journey with whānau and many volunteers, she intends to see it through.
“I cannot ask people to believe in me if I am not prepared to stand up for what I believe in. So, on 7 November, the people of Tāmaki Makaurau will have their opportunity to decide. If they choose someone else, I will respect that decision wholeheartedly. But if they choose me, I will consider it the greatest privilege to serve them in Parliament.
“The decision now belongs to the voters of Tāmaki Makaurau,” she says.
A tight race before controversy
The Whakaata Māori–Curia poll released last Tuesday, before the video emerged, had the race neck and neck.
Kaipara was on 33% and Leoni on 31%, with the Greens’ Florence Te Ohaere on 21%. Another 9% were unsure, and 6% preferred someone else. The 2-point gap is within the poll’s margin of error.
Among decided voters, Kaipara had 36%, Leoni 34% and Te Ohaere 23%.
Labour led the party vote in Tāmaki Makaurau on 28%, ahead of the Greens on 17% and Te Pāti Māori on 10%.
Curia Market Research surveyed 500 Māori adults enrolled in Tāmaki Makaurau between 5 and 15 October, by phone and online panel. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Te Ao Māori News has approached the Labour Party, Oriini Kaipara and Florence Te Ohaere for comment.
Advance voting opens today.
