A former Maori Party leader says he can't make sense of MP Takuta Ferris' controversial race comments

Ferris posted a photo of Labour volunteers stating their ethnicities and wrote they were campaigning to take a Maori seat from Maori in the Tamaki Makaurau by-election.

The party apologised, but Ferris stood by his comments in a second social media video.

Te Ururoa Flavell says the party has a history of inclusivity.

He says many of their candidates in the general sense weren't Maori, being Pasifika, Chinese and Korean.