By Patrick Gower
Former ACT MP David Garrett has resigned from Parliament, effective from midnight tonight.
He is blaming "dark forces" within the party for exposing his theft of a dead baby's identity.
He says those forces also have leader Rodney Hide in their sights.
Garrett's seat is now empty, after a secret ended his Parliamentary career. So 3 News asked his former leader - has he got anything to hide?
"I rack my brains and I don't think so," says Mr Hide.
Garrett's last public act as an MP was an interview in The Truth Weekender, complaining about "dark forces" within ACT.
Those forces are now gathering for Mr Hide, with anonymous smears being circulated about him.
He blames MP Heather Roy's former advisor Simon Ewing-Jarvie.
"Mr Ewing-Jarvie is not my problem," says Mr Hide, "and I'm not interested in the smears he's allegedly putting around."
Ms Roy wanted Mr Hide's job, but didn't want to talk about "dark forces".
"I don't know what the dark forces are - you'll have to ask them what they meant about that.
"I think everybody's been reading too much Star Wars, myself."
The "dark forces" aren't concerning Sir Roger Douglas either - he's just busy fighting Prime Minister John Key one pamphlet at a time.
He's been in the wars before, and says ACT's problems are no different to what tore the Labour government apart.
"These accidents happen and they are just personal tragedies, but you've just got to move on."
ACT's new MP is Hillary Calvert, who'll be hoping to stay accident-free.
So Garrett's gone, but moving on won't be that easy. There are two-and-a-half pages of detailed allegations being put around about Mr Hide. They may be unproven, but the "dark forces" are certainly real - and that's a problem for ACT.
3 News
source: newshub archive
