The relationship between two marginal party leaders Liz Gunn and Sue Grey seems to have fractured as they face off in a West Coast-Tasman electorate turf war, according to a report.
Grey is the co-leader of the Outdoors and Freedom Party and Gunn is the leader of the NZ Loyal Party.
Many know the two women as anti-vaccination activists who worked together last year in the controversial 'Baby W' case, where they defended the couple of the infant.
The parents had refused life-saving treatment for their four-month-old child if the doctors couldn't guarantee the blood transfusions wouldn't be from people who might have had the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Grey was the family's lawyer and Gunn was in support of the parents' decision.
The judge eventually ordered the baby should be turned to a doctor's care and go ahead with the open-heart surgery.
Since then, according to The Westport News, the relationship between Grey and Gunn appears to have started to fracture.
Grey had slammed Gunn after hearing she made hints and allegations about her at a meeting in Westport on Friday in front of about 60 people.
Gunn told the crowd she had "deeply trusted" Grey until Alan Simmons, the president of her Outdoors and Freedom Party, "completely, viciously attacked" her, The Westport News reported.
Speaking to the newspaper on Wednesday, Grey said she was shocked to hear Gunn had publicly bagged her.
"I did work very constructively with Liz during the 'Baby W' case and I went and supported her when she was facing charges by the police, [I] went to Auckland," she said.
She told The News she was also "extremely surprised and disappointed" when Gunn decided to stand a candidate against her.
Grey, who is Freedoms NZ's West Coast-Tasman candidate, described Gunn's motives as more "spiteful" than "public interest".
Freedoms NZ is a merger party between Grey's Outdoors and Freedom and Brian Tamaki's Vision NZ.
Gunn, a former broadcaster, was filmed at a meeting in Palmerston North recently asking her supporters to help her account for the 1.5-2 million votes she was expecting.
In the most recent Newshub-Reid Research poll, NZ Loyal had 1.4 percent, while Freedoms NZ didn't register above 1 percent.
