Beleaguered National MP Aaron Gilmore was reportedly heard by neighbours last night having a loud argument with himself, in which he threatened to use his lack of political muscle to end his own career.

Neighbours say they didn’t hear the entire argument, which took place at the MP’s Christchurch home, but that Gilmore seemed upset that he had made a mockery of himself after berating a waiter at a Hanmer Springs hotel and bullying two tenants who were staying in a property owned by him and his partner.

“Do you have any idea who I am!?” Gilmore screamed at himself last night. “I’m an extremely unimportant politician! Do you know what I could do with my complete lack of political power? I could end you!”

He then threw himself out of the house and returned two hours later in a police vehicle.

Neighbour Todd Albany said it wasn’t the first time Gilmore had behaved this way.

“Oh we hear drunken arguments coming from that side of the fence all the time,” he said. “It’s always fuckin’ this, fuckin’ that. We didn’t realise he was an MP until we saw him on the news.”

Gilmore will return to Parliament tomorrow for the first time since his public embarrassment, and will be asking a primary question of the government during Question Time. There is no word yet on what this question will be, but observers expect the answer to be no.