Gay MP Charles Chauvel is distancing himself from suggestions that he was part of a small group claimed by troubled fellow gay MP Chris Carter to be plotting Labour leader Phil Goff's downfall. Charles Chauvel MP Chauvel has told the Herald that he could have been in Carter's office the night Carter says he and three other MPs gathered to discuss their fears that Labour cannot win the next election with Goff as leader, and the best time for a leadership change. He says he was often in Carter's office but could not recall that specific night. Carter was discovered to have next day ineptly distributed anonymous 'heads' up' messages to parliamentary journalists regarding a planned coup. "I've never been involved in any plotting or scheming against our leader," says Chauvel who says he fully support's Goff's leadership. Carter is "either confused or imagining things that didn't occur" according to Chauvel who Carter told GayNZ.com last week was the only rainbow MP who has supported him through the recent months controversies which have seen him expelled from the Labour party. He is only the second sitting MP to have been expelled in the Party's 94 year history. The controversy surrounding Carter continues with the increasingly disgraced MP being spotted at an Auckland gym yesterday without the Speaker's permission to be absent from the Parliamentary precinct while the House was sitting. You can discuss this New Zealand gay community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 15th October 2010 - 12:32pm