Tauranga Independent candidate for this year's election, Rusty Kane, is clairifying rumours he is behind a fake Simon Bridges Facebook Page that emerged online yesterday.

Rusty last week announced he will run in this year's general election for the Tauranga seat against incumbent National MP Simon Bridges, Labour Party candidate Rachael Jones and former NZ First, now independent Tauranga MP Brendan Horan.

A fake Simon Bridges Facebook page was set up on Monday, says the MP.

This morning he has been fielding calls asking if he is behind a fake Facebook page replicating Simons that was set up online on Monday.

'People have been calling me this morning saying ‘Rusty are you behind that fake Facebook page' and I have been saying ‘no'.

'I would never do anything like that – it puts you in a bad light.”

Rusty is not sure who may have set up the page that by last night had more than 30 likes.

Simon himself posted on his own Facebook page yesterday warning people about the fake site that had been set up and is making friend requests.

'Simon has come out and said he thinks it is politically motivated, which may lead people to believe it was me as I am standing against him this year – but it wasn't,” says Rusty.

'I can't see Labour doing anything like that.”

Rusty, who previously stood for Bay of Plenty Regional Council and has been a Taranaki District councillor, is promising voters a centre-left approach.

'I don't have policies, but because I'm centre left I'll take on New Zealand First policies,” he earlier told SunLive.

He says he's taking the stand because none of the other Tauranga candidates have the primary goal of serving the Tauranga electorate as its MP.

'What they are doing is just waving the flag, as if that's enough for the electorate. I'm the only one standing against Simon. I'm going for the Tauranga seat.”