Stuart Nash has 'made his view on women very clear' - Nimon

National's MP for Napier Katie Nimon has responded following "sexist" comments made by Stuart Nash yesterday.

Last night Nash quit as NZ First's Napier candidate — hours on from opting not to apologise for calling his National rival lazy after she took maternity leave.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said in a post on X that "Stuart Nash has offered his resignation as a candidate and we have accepted".

The announcement came an hour after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon ruled out Nash serving as a minister in any government he leads, in a social media post.

Nash was previously a Labour minister, but was sacked by Chris Hipkins.

In a post online following his resignation, Nash said "the point I was trying to make is a simple one: that Napier deserves an MP who fights hard for this region, in the electorate and in Wellington".

"That belief is undimmed, and I'll keep advocating for Hawke's Bay in other ways," he wrote online.

"A private message I sent has become a significant distraction, and I don't want that distraction to cost NZ First or the people of Napier the campaign they deserve.

"As a husband and a father of four (including two strong, independent daughters) I have real respect for any working parent, and I regret that my words were open to an interpretation I never intended. I could have made my point far better."

He thanked the NZ First team, and wished Winston Peters and "every NZ First candidate the very best for the 2026 campaign".

'He probably acts before he thinks' - National MP

Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Nimon said she agreed with Nash that "he's a distraction, and he's actually a distraction locally too".

"In this case, I've said people want to see someone with empathy representing them, being an advocate. He thinks they have to be a fighter and be aggressive, and we just see these two things very differently. And I'll be pleased to run a maybe otherwise boring campaign," she laughed.

Asked about Nash's previous comments describing women as a "p***y and a pair of t**s", Nimon said "he probably acts before he thinks".

"I said yesterday as well, you know, he's made his view on women very clear... Actions speak louder than words, you can say that's not what you mean, but if you repeatedly do it, I think people can see that pretty clearly," she said.

Nimon said she was pleased by the outpouring of support from other National Party members including Luxon and Chris Bishop.

"[Luxon] came straight up to me after he did the tiles run in the afternoon, incensed by what Stuart Nash had said, and I felt so much support from him.

"Actually, the whole entire time I was pregnant and had my baby. In fact, he [Luxon] was saying, 'take more time off. We've got you', and we do run as a team. And I was very grateful for that. I chose to come back earlier, but you know, his words of support yesterday were great, and I felt incredibly supported by my entire team."

MPs from across the House have condemned Nash.

Breakfast host Tova O'Briend asked: "Have you heard anything from Stuart Nash himself? Has he reached out to apologise to you personally?"

Nimon said: "No, no. Unless he's texted me while I've been standing here with you, Tova."

She added that there was "no right way to be a working mum, but every mum deserves the choice".

"I chose to go back to work and represent my community after 10 weeks. But I have friends that have taken nine months off or 12 months off, and so they should," she said.

Hipkins takes aim at Peters, Luxon

Hipkins said Nash's comments were "sexist and wrong".

"He has once again highlighted why I was right to remove him from Cabinet. He does not have the judgement or temperament to be a Minister. It is an indictment on both Winston Peters and Christopher Luxon that up until yesterday they thought he did," he added.

“Christopher Luxon is very selective in the way he seems to approach standards of ministerial conduct. He’s right that Stuart Nash’s recent outburst was unacceptable, but so was Shane Jones insinuations about him performing oral sex on a visiting foreign leader, Winston Peters making masturbation jibes live on TV and Shane Jones outright racism towards Indians, yet the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing about any of that.

“Yesterday’s events were a stark reminder that a vote for any of the three parties currently in government is a vote for more of the same.”

Jones has since said his knee-pads remark was a "harmless and innocuous expression" that could have referred to gardening or volleyball.

'Massive drop-kick thing to do' - Bishop, McAnulty react

Speaking on Breakfast's weekly political panel, National MP Chris Bishop said he "just could not believe it when I heard" Nash's comments.

"Those sort of attitudes looked like something out of the 1950s. Extraordinary. I mean, the idea that you can't take a bit of time off and still be an MP - I just couldn't believe it."

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty agreed, saying: "it's a massive dropkick thing to do and say, and I have got no sympathies for him. He's the master of his own demise, and good riddance."

Bishop said "this is a guy with, unfortunately, a history of of bad judgment".

"They're a shocker, and Mr Peters decided it was appropriate to have him run as a candidate. Now we've had this latest awful incident. So, I just think, as Kieran says, good riddance."

"This as a standalone instance was enough for him to have to resign, in my opinion. But on the back of his previous comments about women, it is absolutely unforgivable," McAnulty added.