'I've got nothing to add': Bill English on repeat over Todd Barclay controversy

Prime Minister Bill English has attempted to draw a line under the Todd Barclay controversy after a week of difficult interviews - repeatedly saying he has nothing further to add to a "normal" employment dispute.

Speaking at his regular post-Cabinet press conference, English answered a number of questions and in doing so said he had nothing to add 12 times. He eventually refused to answer more questions.

Questions about whether the National Party board had incorrectly involved itself in the employment dispute were a matter for the board, he said.

"All I know is I wasn't involved in it. As I understand it, it was an agreement between the parties. As you would expect for any, I mean this is just a normal employment dispute. This one just happened to have a lot of ongoing problems follow-on from it."

Police are set to this week decide whether recent information warrants a reinvestigation into a complaint Barclay illegally recorded his former staff member Glenys Dickson during an employment dispute.

Police had previously found insufficient evidence after Barclay declined to be interviewed. English had told police Barclay had told him he had left a dictaphone on in his electorate office and had recordings of Dickson.

It is illegal to intentionally intercept private communications you are not a party to. English said he would fully co-operate if police re-opened the investigation, and had not sought legal advice.

"I haven't sought legal advice and there's no need to. Again, I have nothing to add to what's been said. Are there questions about anything else," English said, before being asked if the scandal would take votes off National in September's election.

"I've just said I've got nothing to add, are there questions on anything else."

Yesterday at the National Party conference English made the further admission that Barclay had offered to play him the tapes. He said he did not take up that offer, and denied advising Barclay to wipe the recordings.

In television interviews on the weekend English suggested five times in two television interviews that "the fact of the recordings has never actually been established".

Before Barclay became MP, Dickson had worked for English, who held the Clutha-Southland seat for 18 years before becoming a list MP.

Amid rumours of secret recordings, former electorate chairman Stuart Davie last year texted English asking about the claims. English's February 21 response said Barclay had left a dictaphone running and picked up all conversations in the office.

He subsequently made his police statement, and released that last week after Newsroom published his text to Davie. English's texts and statement were entirely redacted by police when they released documents to the Herald under the Official Information Act in March.