Tony Windsor rival dumped by Nationals "I'll put him on": Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid is reported to have helped kickstart Richard Torbay's political career. Richard Torbay has been dumped as the Nationals candidate for New England after information emerged he had previously accepted funding from Labor to run as a state independent against Nationals candidates. It is understood the Nationals are concerned about possible links to the family of the then Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, the subject of the state's largest-ever corruption investigation. "The party has received information over the past 24 hours of which we were not previously aware regarding Mr Torbay," NSW Nationals chairman Niall Blair said on Tuesday night. The party has asked Mr Torbay to withdraw his candidacy for New England and to resign from the NSW National Party, which he has done. On Monday, Mr Torbay's opponent in New England, the independent federal MP Tony Windsor, called on Mr Torbay to explain himself following reports Mr Obeid had helped him kickstart his political career. The Labor strategist Shane Easson told The Australian Financial Review he had received a call from Mr Obeid in late 1998. Mystery: Richard Torbay has been asked to sdtand down by the National Party. I've got Richard Torbay with me and he wants to know whether he should run for [the state seat] of Northern Tablelands as either a Labor candidate or as an independent. I'll put him on'," Mr Easson said he was told by Mr Obeid. Mr Easson said he advised Mr Torbay, then a Labor Party member, to tear up his party membership to run as an independent as he stood a better chance of winning. Mr Torbay entered the NSW Parliament in 1999 as an independent in Northern Tablelands, defeating the Nationals' Ray Chappell. In May 2007 he was appointed independent speaker of the NSW Parliament by the then premier Morris Iemma. Mr Torbay told The Financial Review he had dealings with Mr Obeid because he was the duty officer in the NSW upper house for the Northern Tablelands. But this account clashes with evidence Mr Obeid gave to the ICAC in its recent hearings into allegedly corrupt coal deals between Mr Obeid and the former minerals minister Ian Macdonald. The Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce is being tipped as a replacement as the party's candidate in New England. On Tuesday night he said he would "absolutely" consider throwing his hat in the ring. "These decisions are always for the people of New England and for the electorate council," he said.