Prominent businessman, author and former politician Sir Robert Edward Jones —better known as Sir Bob Jones— has died. 

The 85-year-old died peacefully at his Wellington home surrounded by family after a brief illness. 

As recently as a few weeks ago, Jones was still writing on his ‘No Punches Pulled’ blog, calling US President Donald Trump “a world-class ignoramus”, and rallied against the “working from home racket” in his last blog on April 16. 

Newstalk ZB Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper told Matt Heath and Tyler Adams every conversation with Sir Bob was one to treasure and hard to forget. 

“He was deliberately obnoxious at times, but for those of us who knew him well, we knew the cut of the man’s cloth, and he was a thoroughly decent individual.” 

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• High-profile businessman Sir Bob Jones has died