National leader Christopher Luxon has confirmed to Newshub it's ripping up an historic election deal with ACT and will try to win the Epsom seat.
But it wasn't before Luxon had to deal with a heckler at a press conference on Monday.
"What you're seeing is a very unstable coalition of chaos emerging on the other side," Luxon said before the man appeared over a fence.
"We haven't seen you out in Otara," the man said.
Luxon replied asking him to be respectful.
"I think you're a candidate for Vision?" Luxon asked.
"We are part of Freedoms New Zealand," the man responded.
It's a fringe party prone to causing a commotion with the 'Chrises'.
The man wasn't letting up despite efforts to pull him down.
"Will the real Mr Chris Luxton (sic) please stand up?" the man asked.
Luxon said: "You're a funny guy mate. You're a real funny guy."
The man said: "You say you are a Christian, but you are not changing anything with abortion. You are not doing anything with transgender."
Luxon eventually gave up, with the press conference moved inside.
Safely indoors and away from unfriendly foes over fences - take two.
"Welcome to Pakuranga, thank you for coming out here to this wonderful electorate," Luxon said.
It's one of all the wonderful electorates National is running in. It is going two ticks blue across the country.
When he was asked if that included Epsom and he was ruling out a deal with ACT, he also replied: "Absolutely."
Luxon's tossed away the promise that National phones it in in Epsom so ACT wins the seat.
When it was put to ACT leader and Epsom MP David Seymour that he might have a race on his hands, he replied: "Well you never know."
National's Epsom candidate Paul Goldsmith has always happily lost his Epsom seat to ACT.
John Banks beat Goldsmith after the infamous cuppa in 2011.
In 2014, Goldsmith was so checked out of the race he didn't even bother to turn up to the televised tussle.
No deal in Epsom means Goldie's going to pick up his game.
Seymour's massive in Epsom. In 2020, he got 48 percent of the vote whereas Goldsmith got just 16 percent.
Asked if he was scared of Goldsmith beating him, Seymour replied: "I don't think scared would be quite the right word."
Goldsmith said: "We're not necessarily putting it up as something that we're automatically going to win."
Luxon raced off on Monday without another word to old mate over the fence.
National's got a bigger challenge ahead in Epsom.
