Two Green MPs have announced that they will quit after their co-leader Metiria Turei announced she will not step down.
Kennedy Graham and Dave Clendon, said Mrs Turei’s position on benefit fraud meant she was no longer fit to be co-leader.
Recently Mrs Turei admitted to lying to Work and Income during the 1990s while on a benefit.
The MPs had wanted a new leader, alongside James Shaw, to lead the party into the September election. They said Mrs Turei’s actions put all Green Party candidates in a “difficult personal situation”.
Dr Graham had been standing in the North Shore electorate and was at number 8 on the Green Party list. Mr Clendon was the party’s Northland candidate, and was number 16 on the list.
Mrs Turei ruled herself out of holding a ministerial position if Labour and the Greens can form a government after the election, after admitting to using another person’s address to register on the electoral roll so she could vote for one of her friends.
