Lange's widow says Field must go

Margaret Pope

The widow of former Prime Minister David Lange says she wants embattled Labour MP Taito Phillip Field out of her husband's former Mangere electorate.

Margaret Pope said Lange never wanted Field to succeed him in the electorate and long held doubts about him, which were realised when the Ingram Report was released.

Field was sent home on leave last month after police announced an inquiry into issues raised in the Ingram Report. He has relinquished duties as an MP, although Labour keeps his vote to be cast in Parliament.

Pope, speaking on TVNZ's Agenda yesterday, said: "I think he's been a very poor MP for Mangere, he does not represent all the people of Mangere. I hope he'll resign, I hope that Mangere will get a better MP as a result."

Pope said Lange was initially supportive of Field and had encouraged him to become MP for Otara in 1993, because of connections with Labour through his union and Pacific Island connections. But he didn't believe Field would be able to represent an electorate like Mangere, and that he should stay on the party list.

"His difficulty with Phillip was that he thought that Phillip was simply not up to the job of being an electorate MP," Pope said.

The first major rift came shortly after Field was nominated to stand as Labour candidate for Mangere. "Absolutely, David was appalled, he was very disappointed. David loved his electorate. And he thought it deserved a lot better than Phillip Field.

"(Lange) wouldn't have been surprised at the content of the Ingram Report. Because that showed quite clearly that Phillip is not fit to be an MP, and it was plain 10 years ago that Phillip was not fit to be an MP.

"But the allegations made more recently against Phillip, which have been referred to the police, include some very serious accusations of perversion of public office, and that is quite a stretch."

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark dismissed Pope's comments. "Margaret Pope's views and David Lange's views were well known 10 years ago. None of this is news to anyone in the Labour Party."

He said the Prime Minister would not comment on the Field case while the police investigation was ongoing. It was estimated it could take six months for police to finish its inquiry. Field first came to Parliament in 1993 as the MP for Otara, then took over Lange's Mangere electorate in 1996. He holds the largest majority in the country, with a clear 16,000 vote lead over the nearest other candidate.