National leader Judith Collins is brushing off an outburst on social media by one of her MPs because she's moving on from politics after the election anyway.
Former National deputy leader Paula Bennett hit back on social media earlier this week after a former senior staffer criticised how she and her old boss Simon Bridges left things for the next leadership team.
Bridges and Bennett were rolled in May in a leadership coup by Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye, and Muller's former right-hand man Matthew Hooton struck out on social media, taking aim at the leadership handover.
"When Nats' deputy leadership changed in May, there was no policy, no benchmark polling, no campaign themes, no campaign grid and the Curia track polls were worse than any public poll this year," he tweeted.
"However the election turns out, Judith has done better than what would have happened."
Bennett responded with a scathing message to Hooton.
"Bullshit. It just wasn't shared with you," she tweeted in response. "You don't get to try and deflect from your utter disaster."
Muller's leadership melted down as he lurched from faux pas to faux pas. Internal polls showed him doing worse than Bridges, and he began suffering panic attacks as his caucus leaked against him. After he stepped down, Collins took power.
Bennett's outburst adds to National's internal wounds, after an email leaked to Newshub this week showed an MP criticising Collins for not running a new policy by her before announcing it.
Collins was asked on Wednesday if she would like Bennett to zip it, but she brushed it off, because Bennett has already announced her plan to retire from politics after the election.
"Paula's, as you know, leaving us very soon," Collins said.
"I'm not worried about it, I just get on and do my job. My job is actually talking about and listening to people about the economy. I'm not worried about people who are finishing up in a week or so."
Collins revealed in June that she was "not really" sorry to see Bennett leave.
"I've seen lots of people come and go and I think for Paula it's the right choice for her and I think she clearly has not been feeling that focused for the last few weeks," she said at the time.
Collins is confident the leaking and outbursts have not lost National the election, despite some National MPs telling Newshub's political editor Tova O'Brien they expect to lose.
"No, not at all," Collins said. "I just think that people are very focused on their lives and I am focused on them as well. I'm not worried about silly trivia."
Labour's Grant Robertson says the leaked email, and the loss of several senior National MPs, is evidence of a party in chaos.
"National has churned through three leaders in the space of three months, faces an exodus of 19 experienced MPs like Amy Adams, Nikki Kaye and Paula Bennett at the election and according to this email are still infighting," he said.
"Judith Collins briefly papered over the cracks in National but this email proves the disunity and chaos we've seen all year is still rife within the party."
