Chris Hipkins' Labour starts to fray at the edges

STUFF/Stuff Labour minister Meka Whaitiri switched to the Māori Party this week. Yet it was later that afternoon that rumours began to reach the Labour Party about the defection of Meka Whaitiri, a minister outside Cabinet, to Te Pāti Māori. Robert Kitchin/Stuff Acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis addresses the media over Meka Whaitiri’s defecting to Te Pāti Māori. Whaitiri has left Labour to join Te Pāti Māori. There is no doubt that the intensity of the past few years has left Labour looking like a Government that has held the treasury benches for significantly longer than its six years.