Advice refutes Labour's conflict allegations

Prime Minister John Key today released legal advice that totally refutes allegations made by Pete Hodgson and the Labour Party in the last few days.


"The advice from the law firm that established Aldgate, my blind trust, states I don't have ‘any ownership or other interest in Whitechapel', and that it is not correct for Mr Hodgson to claim the assets I did own were ‘transferred' to Whitechapel Ltd. They were in fact sold to Whitechapel.


"All this means that I have no beneficial interest in Whitechapel Ltd, which is central to Labour's claims of a conflict of interest.


"As I have been saying for the last few days, I utterly refute the allegations made by Mr Hodgson and Labour. They are nothing more than muckracking and factually incorrect.


"To ensure transparency, I will be providing the advice from the law firm to the Speaker, to support my position and refute Labour's privileges complaint against me.


"Clearly, Labour has no response to the Budget and they are resorting in desperation to muckracking. This isn't the first time Labour has employed these tactics - we also saw it during the 2008 election campaign."