KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark denies Labour is backing Dick Hubbard as its candidate for Auckland mayor and says she has no knowledge of claims that Labour Party figures are pressuring candidate John Hinchcliff to step out of the race.
Dr Hinchcliff has claimed he was advised to withdraw so he did not split the centre-left vote and damage Mr Hubbard's chances of beating John Banks into the job.
Dr Hinchcliff, who was the bottom-ranked candidate in last month's Herald-DigiPoll survey of mayoral contenders on 5.2 per cent, has refused to say who in Labour has been pushing him to stand aside.
On Newstalk ZB yesterday, Helen Clark said she had no knowledge of a former Labour MP writing to Dr Hinchcliff saying it would be easier for him if he stepped aside.
She said Mr Hubbard, who is standing as an independent, was not the Labour Party candidate and he had no affiliations to any political party. Although Mr Hubbard was getting advice from Labour president Mike Williams, she said Mr Hubbard sought advice from a wide range of people.
When asked by Newstalk ZB if Dr Hinchcliff should bow out, Helen Clark said she never commented on local body elections in Auckland.
"My electorate happens to be in the middle of Auckland.
"I work with every mayor who is elected, regardless of what their party or background is, and I'm not going to get involved in it."
Dr Hinchcliff, a first-term Labour councillor who is standing as an independent, said pressure had also come on him from City Vision-Labour colleagues on the council who thought he could split the centre-left vote to the detriment of Mr Hubbard.
"I don't think that is serving democracy well.
"I can see the logic of it in terms of power politics."
But he would not be swayed by the pressure and "planned to run as hard a campaign as I can".
Mr Hubbard yesterday said he had not been specifically endorsed but considered himself as the preferred Labour Party candidate in the mayoral race.
He had attended functions where National leader John Key had introduced Mr Banks as the next mayor of Auckland "and you can't get much more direct endorsement than that".
Mr Hubbard, who like Mr Banks and Dr Hinchcliff is standing as an independent, said he had received no strategic or campaign advice in any "shape or form" from members of the Labour Party or Labour MPs.
He did not consider two, maybe three, meetings with Mr Williams to discuss, among other things, the value of polling and the value of focus groups as campaign advice. He had discussed similar matters with National supporters.
