The Te Pāti Māori President says he won't be apologising after ACT's Tauranga candidate Cameron Luxton demanded one for "spreading misinformation" about the city in a press release.
Te Pāti Māori President Che Wilson said on Friday that the party wouldn't run in the Tauranga bi-election "on the basis of a safety issue".
Wilson pointed to a report from the Department of Internal Affairs into Digital Violent Extremism in the announcement.
"Tauranga is a hotspot for hate speech from white supremacists on social media," Wilson said.
Forty-three minutes later Wilson corrected his statement.
"Hate speech from white supremacists on social media is the largest form of hate speech in this country. Tauranga is a hotspot."
Following the correction, Luxton is calling for an apology from Wilson to Tauranga.
"The Māori Party has been caught in a lie, trying to bad-mouth Tauranga by spreading misinformation and they owe our city an apology."
Luxton said in a statement Wilson has "no evidence" to back up the claim.
"I grew up in this city and I'm raising my family here. It's full of wonderful, hard-working people.
Newshub put Luxton's comments to Wilson, he said there won't be an apology.
"We are maintaining our line, there is definitely an issue with racism in Tauranga, as well as other places so we are maintaining our line."
The by-election, forced by the resignation of National MP Simon Bridges, will take place on June 18, with a number of candidates already confirmed. That includes National's Sam Uffindell, Labour's Jan Tinetti and ACT's Cameron Luxton.
