Luke Foley will not recontest his seat at next year’s New South Wales election following his resignation as party leader.
Foley quit as party leader on Thursday despite denying allegations that he put his hands inside the underpants of ABC reporter Ashleigh Raper at a Christmas function in 2016.
He faced increasing pressure over the past 24 hours from within his own party to quit parliament.
The two men who have put their hand up to replace Foley – deputy premier Michael Daley and the opposition spokesman for water Chris Minns – said on Friday that they believed Raper.
Daley said he had referred Foley’s membership and candidacy for the ALP in parliament to the party’s candidate review committee, while Minns called on him to quit.
But despite saying on Thursday that he intended to remain in parliament, Labor sources confirmed that Foley had written to party headquarters on Friday announcing that he would not recontest his seat of Auburn.
On Friday evening, NSW Labor released a short statement confirming that he would not recontest the seat.
“On Friday 9 November 2018, the Member for Auburn, Luke Foley wrote to the General Secretary and advised that he would not be contesting the next election,” the statement read.
“Mr Foley has sought permission to resign as NSW Labor’s endorsed candidate for Auburn.
“The Party Officers met this evening and accepted his resignation.”
The party did not say whether Foley intended to remain in parliament until the next election, although it is understood that if he does so, he will probably be dumped from the party and be forced to sit on the crossbench.
Recriminations have flowed on both sides of parliament after the release of Raper’s statement.
The Australian newspaper made first mention of a “rumour” regarding Foley and his behaviour towards an ABC journalist at the Christmas party in a story in May, although it did not go into any detail, noting that neither the journalist, the ABC nor Foley would comment.
The allegations were then raised by the Liberal party minister David Elliott, who used parliamentary privilege to air them last month.
Raper criticised the use of her situation for “political point scoring” in her statement, saying Elliott’s decision to bring the matter into the public glare “occurred without my involvement or consent”.
“David Elliott raised the matter in the New South Wales parliament last month, putting the incident in the public domain,” she said.
But the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, declined to admonish Elliott publicly on Friday.
“I’ve expressed my absolute disappointment that her ability to control the issue, as she wanted to, was taken away from her,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
In a short news conference lasting less than two minutes on Thursday, Foley denied the allegations against him and said he had briefed lawyers to begin defamation proceedings following the ABC’s publication of Raper’s statement.
On Friday afternoon, lawyers for the ABC had yet to receive correspondence from lawyers acting for Foley. The ABC has said it stands by the statement, and by Raper.
Also on Friday, Sean Nicholls, the ABC journalist who Raper said witnessed the incident with Foley, released a statement confirming his support for Raper’s account of the evening.
In comments that appeared to indicate his willingness to give evidence on behalf of Raper if Foley did initiate defamation proceedings, Nicholls said: “I fully support Ashleigh’s account of what happened.”
Nicholls and the ABC also hit out at comments by the Australian journalist Andrew Clennell, who first published the story. In a front-page article on Friday, Clennell wrote that Nicholls had leaked the information to a Liberal politician.
In a statement, the ABC said Nicholls “unequivocally denies this claim”.
“Today’s report in The Australian is wrong and an outrageous slur on my integrity,” he said.
“I have never given information to a Liberal politician – or any politician – about an allegation involving an ABC journalist and Luke Foley.”
Clennell Tweeted on Friday: “as Sean Nicholls is well aware my story is 100 per cent accurate”.
Raper, who previously worked as a reporter inside the state parliament, released a statement on Thursday addressing reports that Foley had acted inappropriately at a function in November that year.
Foley had previously denied allegations that he harassed a journalist at the Christmas party, after they were aired last month. He reiterated that denial on Thursday.
The ABC statement said the reporter had not wanted to make a complaint and had come forward now only because of “media and public pressure”.
Late in the evening after the function, she said, the opposition leader had approached her and a group of people to say goodnight.
“He stood next to me,” she said. “He put his hand through a gap in the back of my dress and inside my underpants. He rested his hand on my buttocks.
“I completely froze.”
Daley remained the favourite to assume the leadership of the party on Saturday despite a late challenge from Minns.
“It’s been a completely ugly episode, in many ways,” he said on Friday. “And I’m calling on Gladys Berejiklian now to join me, if I’m elected leader, in lifting the standards of parliament.”