Labour-Green relationship suffers another blow

The Labour-Green relationship has suffered another breakdown with the Greens ditching a deal with Labour over the Ōhāriu seat with only 15 minutes' notice.

The Greens had pulled their candidate to give Labour MP Greg O'Connor the best chance of winning it off of Peter Dunne.

But now, the Green party candidate Tane Woodley is back in - undermining the Labour-Greens "Memorandum of Understanding" agreement to work together.

Greens co-leader James Shaw says now that Mr Dunne is gone, so is the deal.

"We originally said we weren't going to stand a candidate in Ōhāriu, in order to get rid of Peter Dunne. That objective's been achieved: we're treating Ōhāriu like the rest of the country - that is, we're standing good local candidates to get the green message out and get the party votes."

But there's more to it than that.

Breaking the deal is a symbol of how Labour and the Greens don't really work together at all anymore - and it has been coming for a while:

In May the Green Party voted in favour of the National Government's Budget Policy. Then, Metiria Turei publicly attacked Winston Peters, making any Labour-led combination look chaotic.

Jacinda Ardern forced Ms Turei to rule herself out of Cabinet, and now, the Greens have broken the Ōhāriu deal.

The Memorandum of Understanding agreement was signed in May 2016 and was still going strong until early this year  but now three leaders are gone.

Now, its Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis, and just James Shaw, and virtually no cooperation.

Newshub.