Life as a politician may seem tough, but Judith Collins says she still enjoys her work.

The National MP and former minister has detailed all about her tenure in Parliament in her new memoir, Pull No Punches. 

The book is due out this week, but has already made headlines over one chapter in which Collins writes that she felt "absolutely hurt" after former Prime Minister John key stripped of the title "honourable," after she had been forced to resign shortly before the 2014 election.

Collins was forced to resign as a minister in 2014 after private third party emails surfaced from blogger Cameron Slater (Whale Oil) suggesting she may have been trying to undermine Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley.

Speaking to Mike Hosking about why she brought this up during an election year, Collins says that she has no ill-will for Key, but that it was a tough time for her.

"It is important to set the record straight."

Collins also defended her stance on the Binnie Report into David Bain's compensation claim. Binnie found that Bain was innocent "on the balance of probabilities", but a later peer review by QC Robert Fisher found numerous errors in his findings.

Collins says that she did not know what she felt about the Bain case until she received the report from Binnie.

"I read it three times and I thought how could he come to those conclusions on those facts.

"Looking at the law and the facts, I didn't think I could do anything else."

• 'Absolutely hurt': Judith Collins says John Key threw her under a bus

While her time in the public eye has not always been easy, Collins told Hosking that she enjoys being a politician, particularly helping people in her electorate.

"For my work, I ask if I can make a positive difference most days, and the answer is yes." 

And she expects to stay in politics for some time, rating National as having a good chance at winning the election.

Collins says that she enjoys working with new party leadership Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye - and took a possible dig at former National leaders in the process.

"Even though we aren't always on the same page about everything, there is a tremendous amount of respect that's being shown to people, and I like working with people who respect others."