The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, the self-styled “bad boys of Brexit” to apologise after claiming in The Telegraph that they had been hired to help New Zealand First reach 12% in the coming election. This has been “scoffed at” and denied by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says: “If Winston Peters is correct, the bad boys must correct the public record and publicly apologise.”

“Of course, there is the chance that the Deputy Prime Minister is dancing on the head of a pin and the bad boys will be working on the election campaign for New Zealand First remotely. In his release, Mr Peters says ‘I have not hired such a crew.’ The specific use of ‘I’ leaves open the possibility that New Zealand First or the New Zealand First Foundation has engaged their services.”

“Mr Peters also says ‘it is impossible to see how they would even gain entry into the country’ which does not preclude them running a social media campaign and providing strategic advice remotely. In fact, that would make sense in this COVID-19 environment.”

“Taxpayers deserve transparency. They deserve to know if Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore lied in The Telegraph for some unknown reason, or if Mr Peters is being cute about his party’s election campaign plans.”
 

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