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An angry Winston Peters is front-footing the latest allegations made about his party's connections to the wealthy Vela family.
It has been alleged he demanded the use of a helicopter from them during the 1999 election campaign, and that senior family member Philip Vela was told by former National MP Ross Meurant, acting as a policy adviser to Peters, that he would have an opportunity to frame policy friendly to industries the family held great stock in, including fishing and horse racing.
Speaking on TVNZ's Agenda programme on Sunday, the New Zealand First Leader has rubbished the allegation, and others, as part of a conspiracy to bring his party down.
However, Peters has acknowledged using a helicopter during the 2005 campaign to travel to the West Coast - albeit not before aggressively challenging Agenda panellists John Roughan and Vernon Small on the minutae of where the helicopter travelled.
He says his party paid for its use.
