National's finance spokesperson Steven Joyce is threatening the National Business Review (NBR) and Matthew Hooton with legal action, Newshub understands.
On Friday, NBR published a column in which Mr Hooton was highly critical of Mr Joyce.
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A source told Newshub that NBR received an "aggressive" letter about the column, which said it has until 5pm on Monday to retract or apologise.
The NBR's publisher Todd Scott says Mr Joyce won't be getting either a retraction or an apology.
He told Newshub if Mr Joyce is successful in launching legal action, NBR will subpoena a number of senior National MPs including Simon Bridges and Amy Adams.
Mr Hooton did not have comment on Monday morning, and Mr Joyce did not respond before deadline.
Newshub.