By 3 News online staff
Rumours of friction in the Labour Party, triggered by the return of David Cunliffe, have been addressed by party leader David Shearer.
Cunliffe has recently returned from holiday but some Labour MP's have said they'd prefer he'd stayed away.
Shearer met with his caucus yesterday, and says he gave them a clear message on the issue of Cunliffe.
“I said very clearly to our MPs, I don’t want to hear about the Labour Party, I want to hear about the issues that are important to people,” he told Firstline this morning, “those are the areas that we need to be focusing on. I do not want to hear about ructions within the party.”
Shearer refused to be drawn on whether his status as party leader was in jeopardy, but also ruled out dropping Cunliffe.
“David Cunliffe is a really valuable part of our team, he’s smart, he’s experienced, he’s leading a portfolio… where this Government lacks absolutely any imagination or any direction of where they want New Zealand to go,” he says.
3 News