A furious Helen Clark is blaming National and the Exclusive Brethren for a "smear" campaign targeting her husband Peter Davis. Photographs which are in Investigate Magazine today and were in the Sunday Star Times yesterday, show Mr Davis being hugged and kissed by a close family friend, Auckland GP Ian Scott. The pictures are not new – they were taken on election night last year at Labour's victory party. But their publication follows a lengthy whispering campaign about Miss Clark's husband, which the prime minister has rubbished as a smear and "a pack of lies". "I've been aware of a smear campaign circulating for many months. Actively circulated by National Party people. "And I've had countless friends phone me about it. It's been assiduously spread through circles in business, the law, accountants – it's just come from all quarters." Investigate editor Ian Wishart has been targeting Mr Davis for months and has appealed for readers to send him details of his private life. Miss Clark said Dr Scott – who is openly gay – was one of the couple's closest friends and had been "reasonably boisterous and drunk" when he hugged her husband. "We have a particularly small group of very close friends . . . and Ian is right in there. He is one of our oldest friends as a couple. "People just fall about themselves laughing when they see that was the great 'gay' allegation." Her husband was "absolutely not" gay and had been "a bit disgusted" when Dr Scott kissed him. Miss Clark laid some of the blame for the campaign against her husband on the Exclusive Brethren. There have been rumours about the Brethren, which campaigned to unseat Labour, hiring a private detective to follow Mr Davis. Members of the church have denied doing so. Miss Clark said the smear campaign against her husband had spread far too wide for it to be the work of the Brethren alone. She blamed a concerted campaign by National and its leader, Don Brash. "I think the National Party has stooped to new levels with his leadership. I think we're seeing the absolute desperation of, actually, the far Right in politics, which feels it has a right to rule, couldn't cope with losing three elections in a row and there's a desperation and nastiness about it and it will stoop to anything." Ref: Dominion Post (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Monday, 18th September 2006 - 12:00pm