Banks and Williamson to be stood down in next fortnight - iPredict
PLUS: Majority think Banks will be gone or sacked before the May 24 budget.
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ACT Leader and Epsom MP John Banks, and his colleague National MP Maurice Williamson, are both expected to be stood down as ministers by 15 May, according to iPredict.
61.5% of punters in the online political marketplace see Mr Banks standing down and 55% see Mr Williamson resigning his portfolios.
63% pick that Mr Banks will be sacked or resign altogether before Budget Day on 24 May.
Prime Minister John Key has refused to be drawn on the issue of whether Mr Banks had behaved ethically in his treatment of campaign donations in his previous role as Auckland mayor.
However, he says Mr Banks "retains my confidence as a minister".
Mr Key's defence of the Epsom MP rests on legal rather than ethical grounds.
Essentially, he says Mr Banks has broken no law, that the law he has not broken is a bit too loose, and that he accepts Mr Banks' word that no law has been broken.
But he also says: "I'm no lawyer."
Mr Banks, who leads the ACT Party, is under fire for donations he received as mayor of Auckland before winning the Epsom seat.
A $15,000 donation came from Sky City – which made a donation of the same size to the man who eventually beat him for the mayoralty, Len Brown – along with a $50,000 donation from internet tycoon Kim Dotcom.
The Kim Dotcom allegations are that Mr Banks knew where the donations came and that he asked for it to be split into two $25,000 "anonymous" donations to get around the electoral rules.
NBR staff
Thu, 03 May 2012
Thu, 03 May 2012
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Banks and Williamson to be stood down in next fortnight - iPredict
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