By Lloyd Burr
Prime Minister John Key will not vote for John Banks in Epsom - meaning if he wants a strategic deal with the ACT Party in the electorate, he won't lead by example.
Mr Key is Epsom's most powerful voter - he lives in Parnell, which is part of the electorate.
He told 3 News he will be giving his electorate vote to National’s Epsom candidate Paul Goldsmith rather than to ACT’s John Banks.
But Mr Banks said he was confident that the Prime Minister would be voting for him.
“I think John Key will vote for me because John Key voting for me could mean three, four or five more MPs to support a coalition Government,” Mr Banks said.
Yet Key made it perfectly clear where his votes will be going.
“I’m going to vote for Goldsmith. I am the National Party leader and I am going to vote for the National Party candidate and give my party vote to National,” he said.
Patrick Gower's blog on the ACT-National 'dirty deal'
After subtly intimating to Epsom voters all year that National only wants their party vote and not their electorate vote, Key is not leading by example.
“I think Epsom voters will make a decision on the day. They have voted tactically in the past and voted for the ACT candidate and given the party vote to National. They may well choose to do the same thing again…but other than that, it’s in their hands,” he said.
And when asked if he was going to tell Epsom voters who to vote for, Mr Key replied “not today…we will see how it goes but I’m the leader and I am 100 percent National”.
“The very clear instruction at the moment is to give your party vote to National, anything else may be for another day.
“This is very much a National seat and they will be looking for indications from us – as we have said, our primary message at this point at this stage is that their party vote should go to National but beyond that, we will have more to say in due course,” Mr Key said.
3 News political reporter Patrick Gower said the words "another day" show John Key would give a more direct message on what Epsom voters should do closer to polling day.
Gower said it was most likely Key would tell them to go for Banks in order to keep ACT's lifeline to Parliament open.
Although Mr Key will not vote for Mr Banks, Mr Banks seems confident that the rest of the Epsom electorate will support him.
“I think they support me, they supported me during the mayoralties and they are good people but they support the centre-right, they support a sound a sensible Government and they support John Key so they will vote me I think,” he said.
“It’s a deeply blue National Party seat 364 days of the year and one day every three years, the people of Epsom vote strategically,” Mr Banks said.
Mr Key had the last word, saying it is the voters and not him who will make the decision in Epsom.
“In the end, the voters make their own decision…I can imagine there might be some people who are influenced by what I might think but in the end, Epsom voters will make up their own minds and how likely they think it is that ACT will be returned with a significant caucus,” he said.
3 News