The Minister of Muscles Stuart Nash might need a few extra protein shakes after last night’s drama.

It was about 7 o’clock when the Prime Minister fronted the media and announced that he had stripped Nash of all his ministerial responsibilities and he was no longer a Cabinet Minister. And he never would be again.

Remember Nash was on his final, final, final, final warning after getting all cocky on it a couple of weeks ago and telling the world how he once phoned up the Police Commissioner about appealing a court sentence he didn’t agree with.

He also criticised judges for the sentences they’ve been handing out. Things you don’t do when you’re a Cabinet Minister.

So when that all came out, the Prime Minister took the Police portfolio off him, but allowed him to stay on as economic development, forestry and fisheries minister. But said at the time that he was on his final, final, final, final, final warning.

But that all changed late yesterday. And the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was the Prime Minister being told that Nash had sent an email in March 2020 to two business people who had provided financial support for his election campaign.

At the time, Nash was the Minister for Small Business and he got in touch with these two guys to tell them where various Cabinet members stood on the issue of rent relief for businesses impacted negatively by Covid.

They’re commercial property owners who, obviously, had an interest in where Cabinet stood on the issue.

And so Nash sent them an email saying he was brassed-off that his Cabinet colleagues didn’t support the idea of helping businesses pay their rent.

Remember, as commercial landlords, these guys stood to benefit in some way, shape or form.

So he came out of Cabinet, went to his office, slammed the door shut, fired up the laptop and sent them an email. And he said in the email “I am as annoyed (and surprised) about the final outcome of the 'commercial rent relief package' as you are.

“I should have argued much harder for this when I saw that things were changing; but without the support I thought I had, it would have been incredibly difficult."

Read between the lines, and Stuart Nash was saying to these guys ‘I know you helped me, I tried to help you, but I just couldn’t pull it off. Sorry.’ That’s me paraphrasing there, but that was the gist of it.

It’s important to point out too that, even though Nash behaved badly, the guys who got the email don’t appear to have done anything wrong. And whether it was either of them who ended up leaking the email to media yesterday, who knows.

Either way, Chris Hipkins was incensed by it all. Not just because of what Nash had done, but also because Nash had reassured him after the earlier stuff that there was nothing else that could come out and bite them both on the backside.

Nash said there wasn’t. But, as we now know, there was. And so apparently, when the PM confronted Nash about it last night, Nash offered to resign. But Hipkins told him to stick his resignation, because he wasn’t going to get to be the hero and resign - he was being fired.

And if you saw Christopher Luxon being interviewed at Parliament last night after the Prime Minister announced the sacking, he was fired up big time as well - saying that Nash sending that email to his financial supporters was akin to insider trading.

Luxon was very hot under the collar. I suspect he was probably more concerned about this latest Nash thing creating another distraction and another missed opportunity for National to talk about its policies.

But, either way, he was demanding that Nash go completely. Out of there. Straightaway. Gone by bedtime.

Which was never going to happen - because a journalist texted Nash asking him if he was going to resign as an MP and he got back to them saying he wasn't. And that he’d be sticking around until the election.

So it seems he’s going to dig his heels in and stay on the parliamentary payroll until October.

Which, I think, shows how pompous Stuart Nash really is. And I think he should go completely. Sticking around on the payroll until October? Forget about it mate.

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