The Benson-Pope come-back

The Herald reports:

Former Cabinet minister David Benson-Pope is planning a political comeback.

Mr Benson-Pope, 63, a five-term Dunedin city councillor before entering national politics, yesterday said he would stand again in October’s local body elections for a council seat.

He is the fifth candidate confirmed as standing in the council’s 11-seat central ward.

Mr Benson-Pope left national politics in 2008, after becoming embroiled in scandal over allegations he mistreated pupils while a teacher in the 1980s.

He was eventually sacked as a Cabinet minister following separate claims he misled the public, and later lost the Labour Party nomination for the Dunedin South electorate to Clare Curran.

Mr Benson-Pope said he hoped his critics had moved on.

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