Dumped Labour MP Taito Phillip Field will stand as an independent when he returns to parliament next week. But he is promising Labour can count on his vote to keep a stable government.
Field announced on Friday that he is resigning from the Labour Party. Labour was moving to expel the suspended MP after he hinted he might stand as an independent at the next election.
But while Field has now withdrawn his Labour membership he has given the minority government his proxy, saying he "owes it to my constituents".
But Prime Minister Helen Clark is not taking him for granted.
"When another party handles the vote of an independent they take instruction from that independent vote by vote and I imagine that is what will be done," says Clark.
Labour knows it also has to work to keep the support of its Mangere members who are still backing Field.
It is meeting with its electorate committee on Friday night to woo them back.
The Labour team who have worked and campaigned for Field now have to decide if they are going to stand by their MP. The decision is not easy because it puts them in direct conflict with their own party - the party they believe in.
However some have already chosen Field. On Thursday night Esther Tofilau from Labour's Young Adult branch said that whether the MP decides to remain in the party or stay independent "we will be following him".
And Arthur Solomon who is on the Mangere Electorate Committee has described the situation as a tussle.
"What makes it worse is when there is a police investigation hanging over Taito - it's very, very difficult at the moment for us," says Solomon.
Any plans Field has for the next election are on hold until that investigation is over. But ideas are already being discussed with the possibility that Field and the Pacific people will form a party of their own.
