The Prime Minister's latest outburst, claiming National MPs released information concerning the Annette King cannabis issue, is nothing short of "a shameless attempt to deflect attention from the shambles currently creating havoc in the Labour Party," Opposition Leader Jenny Shipley said today.

"I challenge her to substantiate that claim, or retract it," Mrs Shipley said.

"I have checked with every member of my caucus team and no National member had spoken to The Evening Post concerning Mrs King and her daughter.

"The Prime Minister's increasingly erratic behaviour is visible for all to see. National however will not tolerate her making claims about us without being able to substantiate them, when they are clearly untrue.

"I demand that, in this instance, she acknowledges she made this claim up, and that she withdraws her statement concerning National MP's association with this issue," Jenny Shipley said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>