KEY POINTS:
Gerry Brownlee is rubbishing speculation Don Brash was told to resign as leader or face the prospect of being rolled.
Sources within National's caucus claim Brownlee and party strategist Murray McCully met Brash on Wednesday last week ahead of the release of Nicky Hager's book Hollow Men and told him it was time to step down or face the prospect of a coup.
National, they said, was tired of Brash's gaffes and believed someone had to take the fall for revelations in Hager's book from leaked National Party emails.
Brash, according to caucus sources, was told National's finance spokesman John Key had the numbers to topple him, and there was little point in him trying to fight the inevitable.
"There is no truth whatsoever to that. I totally reject that.
"There are some people in the caucus behaving in an extremely childish and petulant way at the moment," Brownlee said.
"Don Brash has behaved in an honourable fashion and I would have thought it was incumbent on those in the caucus to behave in a similar manner to ensure we hold the very considerable ground he regained for us in the 2002 election."
Brash could not be reached for comment yesterday, but on Friday he told the Herald on Sunday he feared he may become the fall guy for the party in the wake of Hager's book.
"One interpretation is that I've [deliberately] taken the fall for a whole lot of the National Party people who needed some scapegoat and that I would take the fall for them.
"That's absolutely untrue."
Brash claimed had been considering quitting for weeks and had discussed the move with key advisers nearly a month ago.
However, this contradicts comments he made to a British magazine this month where he said he wanted to lead National into the next election.
