Former National MP Aaron Gilmore - please stop listing me in rogues' gallery of disgraced MPs

Former National MP Aaron Gilmore is running for a seat on Wellington City Council. Photo / Supplied

"All I did was call someone a dickhead in a bar who deserved it," says former National Party MP Aaron Gilmore.

He's despairing over the company he has been thrust into this week by interviewers seeking answers from National's leader Christopher Luxon over the party's selection process.

"Aaron Gilmore, Jami-Lee Ross, Todd Barclay, Hamish Walker, Andrew Falloon and Jake Bezzant," said Simon Shepherd to Luxon on Newshub Nation this morning.

Radio NZ's Guyon Espiner threw the same names at Luxon on Wednesday, calling them a "rogues' gallery".

Gilmore, now 48, winces.

He quit Parliament in 2013 after an infamous altercation with a waiter in Hanmer Springs that involved a few drinks and claims of influence exerted in an untoward way.

It seems mild compared to another National candidate who masqueraded as his own girlfriend, using intimate images of her to encourage sex chat with men.

Or the former National MP who sent unsolicited indecent images to a young woman.

"What a list of people to be associated with," bemoans Gilmore.

"Jami-Lee Ross is in court, Barclay was the guy who (allegedly) illegally recorded someone."

Police investigated but found insufficient evidence to charge Barclay.

For the sake of completeness, Walker leaked private medical information about people with Covid-19 to the media in an attempt to profit politically.

And then there's Sam Uffindell, the Tauranga MP who admitted being a high school bully.
He left King's College aged 16 after he and two others beat a 13-year-old in the night, allegedly with wooden bed legs.

"Violence is a whole different kettle of fish. How do I deserve to be associated with that group of people?" asked Gilmore.

"You've got a guy who got through selection after telling people he beat a kid while two other guys held him down."

And why does his name lead the pack, he asks.

He resigned in May 2013 - his second term in Parliament and National's second in office.

Aaron Gilmore with John Key in 2010. Photo / Supplied

During his time in Parliament, Pansy Wong resigned as a Minister and then MP for misusing Parliamentary perks on a trip to China. Richard Worth quit as a Minister and MP in June 2009 after claims he offered a woman a job in return for romantic favours.

Gilmore is running for public office again. He has put his name forward to become a Wellington city councillor in the upcoming local government elections.

Again, like when he stood in 2008, he feels he has something to contribute.

Since marrying Christina Mossaidis and moving to the capital, he's grizzled about aspects of the council's operation.

She asked if he was going to keep griping - or do something about it.

And that's despite his exit from politics in 2013.

"It was horrific," he says.

"I was on the front page of every newspaper and led every television station for a week.

"Even murderers don't do that. And all I did was call a waiter a dickhead in a bar."

There was another claim - that he uttered those unforgettable words "don't you know who I am". It's a claim he has always denied.

It was also alleged he had insinuated he would use the office of the Prime Minister to get the waiter sacked. That is another claim he denies.

"I didn't even say that. Everyone in New Zealand, in a short space in time, hated me."

Gilmore said he was isolated by the party.

Today, he says, the "mental health card" results in wraparound support.

"I was really struggling to get help and support from anyone. I was suffering and no one would help me.

"The abuse I got was horrific. At the time, I was probably suffering from severe depression."

He said he reached out to a senior colleague and was told, "basically, harden the f*** up".

National Party MP Aaron Gilmore making a personal statement to the House in 2013. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Gilmore says he quit because he decided he had to go and not because of an instruction from Prime Minister John Key.

"I was never told to leave by anybody."

Rather, he says that when he was told he couldn't make a leaving speech he threatened to stay.

And so he spoke, expressing regret and offering apologies. Key described Gilmore's final speech as "dignified".

Today, Gilmore remains a National Party member. He quotes a political aphorism that if you agree with two-thirds of a party's position then you're in the right movement.

He also says he's never ruled out a return to national politics.

Until then, though, there is the fight for a seat on Wellington council. He reckons name recognition will be strong.

He went to a function recently and was chatting to someone who asked if they had met before.

"You look familiar," he was told. And then realisation hit: "Oh! You're that guy!"

Yes, he says, but really not the guy you think I am.