Former National minister Chris Finlayson believes the current leader has been “let down” by the National Party Board over the Sam Uffindell scandal.
Luxon has stood down his newest MP after incidents from his past were made public.
Sam Uffindell, who recently won the Tauranga by-election, admitted taking part in a violent attack on a younger student which saw him asked to leave King’s College when he was 16 years old.
Allegations from a former flatmate of aggressive behaviour while they were at Otago University were also raised, though Uffindell denies that.
A review by Maria Dew QC is currently being conducted.
READ MORE: National MP Sam Uffindell stood down while new allegations investigated
“I feel very sorry for Christopher Luxon who I think is a very good leader. And it shows the importance of making sure the leader knows everything," said Finlayson.
"The sensible thing would have been for the board to have gone to the leader and said: ‘Well we’ve got a number for selection, there’s this guy – good credentials, great background – but you’ve got to know that when he was a kid he did X, and when he was a student at Otago he did Y’ so that the leader knows those things.
“People may say the leader does not want to be bothered with all this detail, but I think that Mr Luxon was let down there by the board.”
READ MORE: Uffindell saga: Nat's president says selection process could be 'improved'
Finlayson said he hopes, "for the new MPs sake he can come through this and that what I call, maybe, his oafish past will be seen as the past, so that he can concentrate on knuckling down for the future. But how it will end I just don’t know.”
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