Book sheds new light on Hager's book

Prime Minister John Key should have announced during the election campaign that his former staffer Jason Ede had quit working for the National Party, the Greens say.

Mr Ede was a central figure in Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics, which disrupted the campaign.

It was known at the time that Mr Ede had left Mr Key's office and was working for the National Party, but it wasn't known until recently that he no longer held that position.

A revised biography of the prime minister, written by John Roughan and released on Thursday, reveals that Mr Ede quit his job the night Hager's book was published.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says National deliberately kept it quiet.

"If New Zealanders had known Ede was no longer working for National, they would have realised there was a lot of weight in the allegations (in Hager's book)," Dr Norman said.

"That's why National didn't want anyone to know."

Hager said in Dirty Politics that Mr Ede was a contact and confidant of right-wing blogger Cameron Slater.

It was alleged they colluded in planning attacks on National's opponents.

In an interview for the biography, Mr Key said Mr Ede had a lot of jobs.

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Book sheds new light on Hager's book