P.M. uses 'Press’ report

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 3

P.M. uses 'Press’ report

Parliamentary reporter Sir Robert Muldoon began last Monday preparing for tomorrow’s National Party Dominion council meeting in case a move to dump him as leader was initiated there. He ordered to be sent out to the 50 or so members of the Dominion council an article in “The Press” last week (July 18) by the newspaper’s senior Parliamentary reporter, Oliver Riddell. In his covering letter with this article, Sir Robert said he dWnot know Mr Riddell’s source for his in-

formation, but the article ■gave an accurate version of what had occurred on the Monday after the General Election on the constitutional and devaluation issues. Sir Robert said this article had been “... very close to what had in fact occurred” and had been , “much different from much of the material that appeared in the news media last week.” Copies of the article were being sent out so that he would not have to regpat it at the he said.

The article was printed under the headline, “Politics at heart of row about devaluation.” It said that “The spat between the incoming and outgoing Prime Ministers about devaluation was not a constitutional crisis but a jockeying for future political advantage.” Oliver Riddell says: Although there has been some speculation that Sir Robert himself was the person who inspired this interpretation, this was not so. My informant was one of those present at the informal Cabinet meeting on the Monday

night which had impinged upon the constitutional and devaluation issues. Although Labour had seen the situation as a “constitutional crisis” as well as a financial one, advisers close to Mr Lange are said to have considered that they might be being “set up” for political advantage by Sir Robert This did not, in the event change their attitude towards devaluation; but it lends support to the view that what happened was not a constitutional crisis but a jockeying for future political advantage.