National's new Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell says he wants to stay on after it emerged a late-night school assault saw him expelled from a prestigious Auckland secondary school.
It was revealed on Monday Uffindell had been expelled from Auckland's King's College in Year 11 for his involvement in a late-night assault on a younger boy.
Uffindell told Breakfast "I really want to stay on" and said he will be meeting with National leader Christopher Luxon on Tuesday after speaking briefly with him on Monday.
"I feel like I've got a lot to contribute. I want to use my position to do good.
READ MORE: New National MP sorry for attacking younger student while at school
"I'm very lucky to be in the position I am and I want to use it to do good for the people of Tauranga and I want them to see me for the person I am as an adult."
Uffindell said he had been "upfront" in written form with the party's pre-selection committee about the incident at King's College and it had been discussed in his interview, where he was "open and honest about it".
"They looked leniently on the fact it happened over 20 years ago when I was 16."
Asked if he's concerned he's lost the trust of the National Party and Luxon, Uffindell said he was "completely transparent" when he went into pre-selection.
"How Christopher feels about that is something we'll probably discuss today."
Asked if he can tell people they can trust his character, Uffindell said he'd "learnt a lot" from his teenage self.
"It was my action, it was my fault. It's my responsibility. I own that and I'm trying to live my life as a responsible adult." He repeated this throughout the interview.
Stuff reported Uffindell and three others used wooden bed legs to attack the younger boy, but Uffindell said he just punched him after they "raided" the Year 9 dorm on the last day of the school year.
"It's something I've regretted hugely ever since. I've felt a lot of remorse about it. I learnt a huge lesson as a young, stupid teenager," he told Breakfast.
"Actions have consequences and I was sorry for the hurt I'd caused. Going into adulthood I reflected on it a lot, wondered about the harm that it had caused emotionally to that person."
Uffindell said he had managed to get in touch with the victim last year and had apologised.
"He said he'd forgive the adult version of me."
Uffindell denied this apology was part of a pre-political career clean-up.
"It wasn't. This event had a significant bearing on my life and I've lived with humiliation as a result of it and also been upset by the harm that I would've caused the person."
He said he was trying to atone after returning to New Zealand after living overseas and wasn't preempting anything. He described the incident as "still bugging on me".
1News' political editor says Christopher Luxon now has a "tough call" to make about Uffindell's political future. (Source: Breakfast)
"It was a genuine apology. It was a genuine apology then and it's a genuine apology now."
1News political editor Jessica Mutch McKay remarked on Breakfast that Uffindell had been let down by the National Party and said it showed its selection process had failed yet again.
Mutch McKay said it's now up to Luxon to decide if Uffindell has a political future.
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