National leader Christopher Luxon has revealed the worst thing he says he's ever done as the party continues to deal with the fallout of the Sam Uffindell scandal.
It's been a turbulent week for the National Party and its leader Luxon after Tauranga MP Uffindell was stood down from the party's caucus on Tuesday night pending an investigation into allegations of bullying behaviour in his younger years.
A former flatmate of the MP, who lived with him in 2003, detailed alleged aggressive behaviour and excessive drinking by Uffindell at university.
The victim, who wished to remain anonymous, told RNZ's Morning Report that Uffindell was intimidating and, on one occasion, she fled her bedroom through a window as he "smashed" on her door yelling obscenities - telling her to "hit the road fatty".
Uffindell has denied the allegations saying he enjoyed a student lifestyle, which included drinking and, at times, smoking marijuana.
Luxon appeared on Newshub Nation on Saturday and said no more MPs have come to him with admissions from their past.
Host Simon Shepherd then prompted Luxon to reveal what his biggest skeleton was from his past.
"I have gone through that same process as the first National Party MP that's been re-selected from my electorate," Luxon said. "I think the worst thing I can say is I was probably in a bus lane and I might have got a $60 fine for it. It's not an exciting thing that I've done."
This was also a question posed to National MPs by the Bay of Plenty Times in the lead-up to the Tauranga by-election.
While ACT candidate Cameron Luxton used the question to disclose and apologise for drunk driving as a teenager, Uffindell said his biggest regret was "not coming back to New Zealand sooner, there's nowhere we would rather raise our kids".
AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green asked Uffindell on Tuesday whether he maintained that was his biggest mistake.
"I think what I gave there was a lighthearted answer to something which I probably should have thought more about," he said.
Meanwhile, another big question to come out of the scandal is if Luxon still backs new National Party president Sylvia Wood - who played a major role in carrying out the reference checks into Uffindell.
Luxon told Newshub Nation he has full confidence in Wood.
"I trust Sylvia Wood completely. I've worked with her over [the] summer as we've gone through actually trying to upgrade and improve our candidate vetting and selection processes," he said.
"We heard very clearly from Sam his story and the account at King's, in all of its full ugliness, and then there was a really good investigation that took place, with Sam but also with others, to make sure he had changed as a person.
"I think she's fantastic and she's going to bring a lot of good leadership in new leadership to the National Party."
Watch the full interview with Christopher Luxon above.
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