Just as Bill English and John Key were moving to shut down the Kiwibank controversy, 3News has received more recordings which suggest National has a hidden agenda.
3News has been in contact with the person who made the secret recordings of Bill English at the National Party Conference on Friday night, who had further secret recordings of Lockwood Smith.
The recordings, where Smith was talking to conference delegates, suggest the National Party have a secret agenda.
Smith was recorded as saying:
"There's some bloody dead fish you have to swallow... to get into Government to do the kinds of things you want to do... and you have to balance up what really matters."
"If you try to do everything differently you'll scare the horses and under MMP it's very hard to win."
"Once we have gained the confidence of the people, we've got more chance of doing more things."
He went on to talk about doing things in government that you could not talk about before an election.
"We may be able to do some things we believe we need to do, perhaps go through a discussion document process... you wouldn't be able to do them straight off. ... I'm hoping that we'll do some useful things that way, that may not be policy right now."
John Key has since said there was no secret agenda, while Prime Minister Helen Clark has said it proved there was some kind of hidden agenda.
Meanwhile, National has spent today defending itself on the comments made by Bill English, recorded secretly at the National Party Conference on Friday night.
As John Key and Bill English walked to face the music - the smiles masked the mess and it was soon clear English was facing a humiliating lesson in eating humble pie.
English was secretly recorded telling delegates at his Party's weekend conference National would eventually sell Kiwibank - today he retracted.
But an eventual sale was very much English's private view just three days ago - and perhaps he was caught out telling the truth, but he has put it down to loose language.
National's policy is not to sell state assets in its first term. Today Key seemed to write new policy on the hoof, indicating Kiwibank would never come up for sale.
In the secret recording English also suggested his leader did not understand the government's Working for Families programme.
English claims he was misunderstood.
But it did undermine Key and was uncomplimentary - but Key agrees the programme is complex.
The secret recordings are a sign this campaign is turning nasty. But Key is making no excuses.
So perhaps Key showed himself to have some leadership ability today - his deputy had to admit his fault - Key knowing there was little other option.