Dunedin candidate says she’ll never return to Dunedin if she loses

Newshub reports:

Labour’s candidate Ingrid Leary has recently moved to Dunedin from Waiheke Island.

Newshub asked her if she’d stay in Dunedin even if she didn’t win, and Leary replied she “hasn’t thought about not winning”.

But Newshub’s unearthed an interview Leary did with Radio Waiheke where she said: “It has been a safe Labour seat so if I dont win the seat I probably won’t ever be catching a plane back to Dunedin.”

So Leary will only live in Dunedin if she is elected an MP. Otherwise back to Waiheke. Not exactly commitment.

Leary said she meant she won’t feel comfortable coming back if she loses.

“I’m expected to win the seat, it’s a strong safe Labour seat,” she told Newshub.

“I’m working really hard to make sure it stays that way and I’d be very embarrassed if I didn’t win the seat, it would mean I’d done something terribly wrong.”

Nice spin, but actually Taieri is not a safe Labour seat. Dunedin South was but Taieri has very different boundaries. It includes a lot of South Otago including Balclutha.