Former deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters' comment describing the National Party as "sex maniacs" is "complete rubbish", say the party.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB on Monday, Peters described National as "sex maniacs", after taking aim at numerous adversaries at the first NZ First AGM since being kicked out of Parliament at the last election.
When asked about criticism received over choosing Labour over National at the 2017 election, Peters said, "you look at the sex maniacs and the mess that they're in now and tell me, what option did I have?"
The comment caused a stir on social media platforms, with National MP Chris Penk tweeting, 'Winston Peters is the real s*x maniac because he can f*** a whole country at once'.
Penk has since deleted the tweet.
"I don't want to cause any offence with the framing of the tweet, so I thought err on the side of safety," Penk said today about removing the tweet.
On Winston Peters' comment of National being "sex maniacs", Penk said, "the answer is, of course no".
Judith Collins said Penk's tweet was "not a term I would use". On Peters' comment, Collins said, "Yeah, no."
"He obviously doesn't know us."
Former National leader Simon Bridges said, "someone is very desperate to get back into Parliament".
"That's not my impression at all."
Melissa Lee said the comment was "ridiculous", while Gerry Brownlee called it "complete rubbish".
"That's the sort of thing that Winston's made a career of, throwing an incendiary in there, no follow up or nothing."
And on if National would ever side with Peters, Collins said, "we just don't see him coming back, so it's an extraordinary hypothetical."
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