Man who released Davis images says election spending the reason

The man who gave a magazine images of Prime Minister Helen Clark's husband being embraced by a man on election night says his main motivation was the election spending issue.

But Chuck Bird said today that he also wanted to stop Labour from "blackmailing political parties".

"My message to Miss Clark is: pay back the money," he said, referring to the $446,000 of taxpayer's funds it spent on its election pledge card.

Mr Bird passed on the images to Investigate magazine, saying he had got them from a contact.

They show Mr Clark's husband, Peter Davis, being hugged and apparently kissed by a man identified by the Sunday Star-Times last week as Auckland GP Ian Scott.

Dr Scott told the newspaper that, while he was gay, Dr Davis was not.

Meanwhile, Miss Clark accused her opponents of trying to attack her husband with baseless, "school boy smutty rumours".

Mr Bird said people could interpret the pictures however they wanted.

He said he decided on his action after Labour frontbencher Trevor Mallard alluded in Parliament to an alleged affair between National leader Don Brash and Business Roundtable deputy chairwoman Diane Foreman.

Mr Mallard then threatened to dish the dirt about National MPs' personal lives.

Mr Bird said he issued an implied threat of his own by sending an email to Mr Mallard asking him "who's the dude in the blue suit that's kissing Helen's husband?"

Mr Bird, 62, has been associated with the Masculinist Evolution New Zealand (Menz) website and opposed to what he described as gay militants, but he said he acted alone when he contacted Investigate.

"It was an individual act," he said.

"I'm taking responsibility for it. I'm not dragging in another group or a political party."

- NZPA