A Labour MP has apologised for comparing the National Party to Adolf Hitler over controversial legislation allowing partial asset sales.
In Parliament yesterday, Wigram MP Megan Woods said: "Hitler had a pretty clear manifesto that he campaigned and won on ... does this make what he did OK?".
The legislation narrowly passed by 61 votes to 60.
Today Ms Woods apologised to her 537 twitter followers for drawing parallel between the Government's actions and those of Hitler that ultimately resulted in the death of six million Jews.
"My comments yesterday were said in heat and were extreme and I apologise", she tweeted.
However, she had initially defended her comments when challenged via Twitter whether the Nazi comparison was helpful.
"As a historian usually I would agree but fact remains that nats are using faulty logic that historical examples can show," she tweeted.
She added: "Point is that simply stating something before an election does not make it right! Example is extreme but exposes logic".
Her comments drew a backlash from many who said they were shocked and disgusted by the comparison.
"If we didn't have good manners, we would be utterly indistinguishable from hitler -the labour party, I guess" wrote one tweeter.
"Whenever #Labour get desperate, they try to out-Hitler the Tories on immigration. It's pathetic and disgusting," said another
