This from Stuff nearly a year ago:
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester has tossed his hat in the ring for a second term.
Labour announced their line-up on Sunday, with all the existing Wellington City Council Labour councillors Brian Dawson, Peter Gilberd and Fleur Fitzsimons all seeking re-election next year.
They will be joined by new candidates Rebecca Matthews-Heron for the Onslow-Western Ward, and 20-year-old Teri O’Neill for the Eastern Ward.
“I love Wellington and with our Labour team on Council over the last few years we have been striving to make the city even better,” Lester said.
Now that he’s lost PM Jacinda Ardern has chucked him under the bus and lied about his allegiances at the same time breaking her own promise to never tell a lie:
It seems Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has thrown deposed Labour Wellington mayor Justin Lester under a Wellington bus.
Lester may still be licking his wounds after losing out to Andy Foster but Ardern seems to have poured salt all over them and cut ties with him – in a very obvious slip of the tongue.
On Monday, during her weekly post-Cabinet press conference, Ardern swiftly distanced the former mayor from the Labour Party by incorrectly stating that he had run this election as an independent.
However, Lester went through an official process to become the party’s official candidate – unlike Phil Goff for example, who was only Labour-endorsed.
Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire.
Jacinda Ardern isn’t all that truthy anymore is she?
You can bet your bottom dollar that she’d have claimed him if he’d won.