Key: Lee still has chance despite ups and downs

Prime Minister John Key is refusing to admit National's Mt Albert by-election chances are all but dashed and remains supportive of candidate Melissa Lee.

Ms Lee has copped criticism for missing Auckland issues debates, including one last night where she instead chose to attend a small neighbourhood watch meeting.

Mr Key said today he wasn't sure why she opted for that meeting, which reportedly involved only about a dozen people.

"I don't know the rationale behind that ... I'm not looking at her diary and I'm not running her campaign", he told TV3's Sunrise programme.

He admitted her campaign, which has not been as smooth as her party might have liked, had been a testing one.

In one instance Ms Lee caused offence by suggesting a new motorway extension between Waterview and Mt Roskill could stop criminals coming from South Auckland and committing crime in Mount Albert.

"There has been ups and downs, as you always get," Mr Key said. "The white heat of the national media turns on you from time to time, it ends up being in a position where it can have interesting outcomes - but that's true of everyone in that position."

However, he refused to write off National and Lee's chances in the electorate and said if she won she would be a good representative for local residents.

Ms Lee told Radio New Zealand she was proud to be a candidate for Mt Albert, but admitted she had found the debates testing.

"I've turned up to quite a few of these public meetings where people have called me all sorts of things."

A recent TV One poll on the by-election put Labour candidate David Shearer on 59 per cent support to win Mt Albert, with Ms Lee on 21 per cent.

The Green Party candidate, co-leader Russel Norman, was on 15 per cent, while ACT's John Boscawen barely registered with 3 per cent.

- NZPA