Jacinda Ardern has promised 'relentless positivity' and shut down attacks on National over the Todd Barclay imbroglio.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has shut down attacks on National over the MP Todd Barclay affair.

Her "captain's call" came on the same day Prime Minister Bill English revealed he no longer had a copy of 450 texts sent to his former staffer Glenys Dickson, who quit as Barclay's electorate worker after she discovered he had covertly recorded her during an employment dispute.

But Ardern, who has promised a "relentlessly positive" campaign said Labour would not be raising that and it was a matter for English to sort out.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has shut down attacks on National over Todd Barclay controversy

"I have certainly been an observer of what's happening in this particular case but it's not something that you'll see us pursuing in the House. It's a matter for Bill English to answer and respond to."

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​NZ First leader Winston Peters has been pressing the attack on English in the House over the texts, but Labour had also been querying English over the issue before Ardern took over as leader.

Prime Minister Bill English says he has "no record" of texts he sent to a former staffer in dispute with MP Todd Barclay.

"We have in the past, but as leader I will not be pursuing it," Ardern said.

"I think there are other issues that we should be focusing on as a party and it's not on my agenda. It's up to the Prime Minister to answer those questions.

"I do not believe when voters go into the ballot box and they look at the parties presented in front of them they will be making a call around the vision a political party has for New Zealand based on machinations like that."

Meanwhile English told media on Tuesday morning he was "not particularly concerned" about the contents of the texts, when asked if there would be anything embarrassing in them.

"I have no record of them."

He said he had a different phone, but he would not go into details.

"All I am saying is that I have no record of them."

He stood by his comments that he was a bystander in the dispute between Dickson and Barclay.

"I was in Wellington, this was all happening in Gore."

Later on Tuesday English clarified he only had one phone and he regularly deleted texts for "good book-keeping, good habits".

"I just regularly keep the number of texts on my phone down as a security measure really."

English said there was a clear definition of what communication needed to be archived as part of a record of government decisions.

"If there's texts that are the record of government decisions, we keep those.

"A lot of my texts won't be government decisions, they'll be communications about the diary or sometimes family stuff, or with colleagues..."

It was English who decided what texts did and didn't need to be archived.

After Dickson quit she was given a payout, in part from then-prime minister John Key's leader's budget.

English, who was MP in the Clutha-Southland seat before Barclay, was dragged into the scandal.

He confirmed Barclay had told him of the recording last year, despite the 27-year-old denying the allegations publicly for months.

Police investigated the complaint made by Dickson, but after 10 months found insufficient evidence for search warrants and to press charges. They were now re-investigating the matter.

English said he had handed relevant material to the police.

The furore forced Barclay to announce that he would not seek re-election in September.

Last week, NZ First leader Winston Peters asked English in Parliament why he sent the texts to his former electorate staffer, right up until the day she quit.

"When he said 'I have no responsibility' for the Todd Barclay matter, why did he send over 450 text messages to Glenys Dickson, many early in the morning and late at night, in the 12 months before she resigned, on 7 February 2016?"

English said the matter was not one for which he had ministerial responsibility, so he was not required to answer in Parliament.

Peters said English sent her 22 messages the day before she resigned and more than 25 the following week.

English on Monday did not deny he had sent the texts, but said Peters seemed sure about it.

"Glenys was someone who worked for me for a number of years that I knew, and I knew a lot of people in Clutha-Southland.

"I'm in communication with a lot of people all the time, ranging from family members to people I used to work with, to people I work with now. I don't count up who's texted what, where."

Asked about texts which were sent as late at 1.20am, English said he would often send messages at that time because it was the only time he could get hold of people.

But he did not know how many texts he had sent to Dickson and he had not sought an inquiry into how they had been leaked.