Bernard Darnton (born 18 December 1972 in Leicester, United Kingdom) is a former leader of Libertarianz, a libertarian political party in New Zealand.
On 29 June 2006, Bernard Darnton filed proceedings in the High Court, suing Helen Clark for allegedly misappropriating public funds to pay for the Labour Party's pledge cards during the 2005 election.
Some commentators labelled the lawsuit a stunt, although it received some media coverage as concern about the "pledge card" funding grew.
[3] In October 2006, after the Auditor-General released a report declaring that the misappropriation of funds was illegal, Labour and other political parties immediately announced that they would pay back the money.
On 17 and 18 October, a majority, including the Labour Party, passed a law through Parliament to 'retrospectively validate' the spending, making it legal, which is required under the Public Finance Act 1989.