Brash severs Brethren ties

Don Brash says the Exclusive Brethren crossed the line. Picture / Greg Bowker

Don Brash has done an about-face, moving to sever his relationship with the Exclusive Brethren and expressing regret about his comments linking Muslims he meets to terrorists.

But he is refusing to say how he will today tackle the internal turbulence which destabilised his leadership, spurred by undenied allegations he had an affair.

And he declined yesterday to move to dispel a suggestion from one caucus source that there may be friction between him and deputy leader Gerry Brownlee, after Mr Brownlee was mooted as a potential deputy in an alternative ticket headed by John Key.

"I don't think that's appropriate to discuss," Dr Brash said.

Today's National caucus is the first since he was confronted two weeks ago about the affair claims by rebel Rakaia MP Brian Connell.

The issue and the way it was handled sparked disquiet within the party, disquiet that reared its head again over the weekend when Dr Brash admitted to having met members of the Exclusive Brethren since the election and refused to rule out doing so again.

His references to Muslims and questions about whether Maori were a distinct indigenous people will have further annoyed some colleagues.

However the new Herald Digipoll survey and Sunday's TVNZ poll have ensured that Dr Brash heads into today's meeting buoyed by public support and in a strong position to silence or shoot down critics.

Pre-empting the possibility that anger about his reluctance to distance himself from the Brethren would surface at today's meeting, which one senior MP yesterday described as a "flashpoint", he moved to say he would no longer hold private meetings with the group.

He said revelations that a private investigator had been hired by Brethren members to investigate Labour MPs breached his understanding of how the rules should apply.

"They crossed the line and National wants nothing to do with them. I think it's important we make our distaste for this sort of behaviour crystal clear."

Labour strategist and Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson accused Dr Brash of flip-flopping and said he was responding to pressure from fellow MPs, who have publicly expressed their concern about the way the party has been tainted by the religious sect.

Dr Brash told the Herald yesterday he was under no caucus pressure on the issue. Asked why he had not drawn the line on Saturday when questioned about the issue on TVNZ's Agenda, he said: "Well, I didn't get around to that point."

He offended the Federation of Islamic Associations on the same programme when defending meeting the Brethren by saying: "Do I meet with Muslims? Yes. Are some of them terrorists? Possibly."

He said yesterday the reference to terrorists "was a spur-of-the-moment comment which I regret".

"The point I was making was that I speak to a wide range of people, some of them with views radically different from mine.

"I speak to people who have been convicted of crimes, I speak to people who have been charged with crimes but not yet convicted."

He said his reported comments about Maori were accurate, but did not reflect the context in which they were made.

Dr Brash said there would be no need to challenge the caucus to demonstrate support for him at today's day-long meeting, set to focus on policy, as there were no questions about the leadership.

- additional reporting NZPA