Christopher Luxon U-turns on Brian Tamaki, ruling him out of any National-led government

National party leader Chistopher Luxon has U-turned on working with Brian Tamaki. Photo / Alex Burton

Speaker Adrian Rurawhe might need to put traffic cones on the black and white tiles at Parliament after the second big political U-turn in less than 24 hours.

National leader Christopher Luxon this morning told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking he would now rule out working with Brian Tamaki's new political movement, Freedoms NZ.

"What I've tried to say consistently is that I've got nothing in common with Tamaki. I think they're crazy, I don't think they're serious, I don't think they're going to make it and you saw that coalition fall apart if you read between the lines.

"If it helps Mike, I'm very happy to give you a Mike Hosking exclusive that I'll certainly rule out Tamaki and never work with him," Luxon said.

National had copped criticism for not ruling out working with Tamaki after the 2023 election, should Tamaki enter Parliament.

Luxon had said the parties had very little in common, and was critical of Tamaki - but never went so far as ruling him out.

The week of Tamaki's protest to Parliament, Luxon emailed supporters justifying his decision.

"After the protest, I was asked by the media about National forming a government with the support of any of the parties at the protest.

"In response, I made one key point that I also want to make absolutely explicit to everyone who wants to see an end to this Labour Government whose legacy will be lots of spin and no delivery, wasteful spending, centralisation and control, divisive identity politics and outcomes going backwards," Luxon said - an apparent appeal to people who might be considering voting for Tamaki to instead vote National.

Luxon said it was "far too soon to be talking about ruling people in or out – even if I disagree with much of what they say".

"We don't even have an election date! National's MPs are busy talking about Labour's failure to deliver, and about National's policies to take the country forward," Luxon wrote.

Labour turned up the heat on Luxon this week. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, in the wake of his own party's U-turn on tax, delivered a barnstorming general debate speech in Parliament goading Luxon to rule Tamaki out of any National government.

"Do the right thing, Mr Luxon, rule out working with Brian Tamaki, or else New Zealanders will continue to believe you stand for extremism, you stand for bigotry. Rule out Brian Tamaki," Robertson said.

At the announcement of the new umbrella coalition, Tamaki said it would consist of the New Nation Party, Vision NZ and the Outdoors and Freedom Party. One of the parties was based in London and two had signed a memorandum of understanding.

However just a day later the Outdoors and Freedom Party said Tamaki had jumped the gun and that they were still discussing the issue as a party and had not come to a consensus about joining political forces.

Vision NZ was set up by Brian and Hannah Tamaki and contested the 2020 general election where it got just 0.1 per cent of the vote.