Oh, really?

The Labour Party Head Office is spinning like a top. Tim Barnett and Moira Coatsworth are trying their damnedest to hose down any mention that Helen Clark may have had something to do with David Shearer's shock resignation two weeks ago; the Herald reports:

Rumours are circulating again about the role Helen Clark had in moves to roll David Shearer as Labour's leader just before he resigned to pre-empt a motion of no confidence.
Helen Clark was in New Zealand the week before Mr Shearer resigned on August 22 and there was speculation she had discussed the need to change the leader with some MPs during that visit.
Yesterday it was also revealed party president Moira Coatsworth and general secretary Tim Barnett had travelled to Waihi to meet her at her father's house in the week before Mr Shearer stepped down.
Mr Barnett, who was a Labour MP when Helen Clark was PM, confirmed the trip but said it was usual to meet when she was in town.
"It would be a regular thing to do. She asked for an update on what was happening in the party. Nothing more than that."
Asked if they discussed Mr Shearer, he said it was "incidental to everything else really".
"She just wanted to get an update on what was going on ... ."
He said he had not known there were moves afoot to unseat Mr Shearer.

Helen Clark does get to vote on the leadership but has not publicly endorsed any of the three contestants, although David Cunliffe has said he was optimistic he had her vote.

Despite the assurances (read: "spin") from Mr Barnett and Ms Coatsworth, we have no doubt at all that Helen Clark was in some way involved. For a start, it totally contradicts a story in the Herald which we blogged about the day after Mr Shearer's resignation. Here's what the Herald said:

Ms Street would not comment yesterday, but it is understood she decided to front the motion because of growing concerns among MPs over Mr Shearer's inability to fire as leader and his poor poll ratings.
A source said there had been discussions for months, but nobody was willing to force the issue until Ms Street stepped up.
One Labour source also said former Prime Minister Helen Clark had been "active" on the issue while in New Zealand over the past fortnight, speaking to some MPs about it.
It is not known if Mr Shearer knew the no-confidence motion was coming, although some MPs close to him had heard rumours of it.

The Labour Party hierarchy is clearly embarrassed at this revelation, and is trying to pretend that it never happened. Interestingly, we have also received e-mails from sources within the Labour Party, and let's just say that the version of events that has been supplied to us is not that of Tim Barnett and Moira Coatsworth.

Labour is trying to make an art form of re-writing history. Just as the asset sales of the Rogernomics era never really happened, and just as Labour claims that Bill English inherited a healthy economy when in fact Treasury was forecasting a Decade of Deficits, Labour is now asking us to believe the unbelievable. 

But the only way that we would give the statement "Helen wasn't involved" would be if appeared on a Tui billboard.