Labour Minister urinates in hotel corridor

I’m sorry but this is just disgusting behaviour. Urinating in a hotel corridor is unacceptable from anyone, let alone an MP and Minister of the Crown.

Samuels is quoted as saying “he does not know what all the fuss is about”. In another story he denied the incident all together.

It would have taken only a minute to get from the corridor to the lobby toilets. Even if you are bursting, you wet your pants rather than risk other hotel patrons seeing a Minister of the Crown (and No 10 on Labour’s List) with his trousers down, urinating in the corridor. No-one sober could have possibly decided this was an appropriate course of action.

I’m not a huge believer in the idea that MPs are role models in terms of their private life, and must be saints. But urinating in a hotel corridor is not a private act. It staggers me that Labour thinks there is no issue about this, and in fact whip Darren Hughes is more concerned that it was made public, than it happened.

This is not the first incident of this type for Dover Samuels. I recall that some time ago he was not allowed to board a domestic flight due to his behaviour, which media suggested was alcohol affected. This suggests a recurring problem, not a one-off lapse.

UPDATE: The other incident was Joe Hawke, not Dover Samuels. I retract the last paragraph. They are both Labour Maori List MPs from Northland, hence my confusion (Hawke retired last election). Apologies for the error, but this does show the nice thing abotu blogs that people will pull you up if you make a mistake, and the errors can be corrected quickly.

UPDATE2: I understand the allegation from the hotel staff member is quite explicit and it is not simply a case of could not hold on, but some very specific undesirable behaviour. Hopefully the staff member concerned will not be gagged and can clear the issue up.