The Prime Minister's office tried to get his Todd Barclay statement withheld from the public.

Prime Minister Bill English's office fought to have his involvement with the Todd Barclay affair withheld from media and the public.

New police documents released under the Official Information Act show that the original release of their file on Barclay - which made no mention of English's involvement - was subject to heavy pressure from his office to keep him out of it.

Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay announced he would not seek re-election after a fuller version of the police file was obtained by media months later, showing that Barclay had informed English that he had recordings of his staff member Glenys Dickson.

MARY-JO TOHILL/STUFF English's eventual release of the transcript led to Todd Barclay standing down.

It is illegal to record a conversation you are not a party to without permission.

English eventually released the transcript of his own interview with police where he detailed what Barclay had told him, setting in motion the events that led to the young MP standing down.

Police told Stuff in June that the Prime Minister's office had requested that his text messages with those involved be redacted from the initial release.

However they described the full redaction of his involvement as something that happened after consultation, not a request from the Prime Minister's office.

But the documents show repeated requests to scrub English's involvement entirely.

"No other person involved in the investigation is able to be identified - why only Mr English? Instead of categorising people, why don't you refer to witnesses as interested parties?" a representative of his office wrote to Police.

The representative said the text messages between English and electorate chairman Stuart Davie were communications between "two private individuals".

"The text communication involved Mr English as a member of the National Party, communicating with another member of the National Party."