National leader John Key has overtaken Prime Minister Helen Clark in popularity and the party has stretched its lead over Labour to 18 points in the latest Herald DigiPoll survey.
The poll, conducted between February 11 and 28, confirms trends of a Fairfax Nielsen poll of February 23, although reduces the point gap between the parties by 5% and the gap in the preferred prime minister stakes by a whopping 13 points.
The Herald DigiPoll puts Mr Key's lead over Miss Clark at 2% while the Fairfax Nielsen poll had it at 15%.
Mr Key is preferred by 46.3% of decided voters and Helen Clark by 44.3% in the poll.
National has led Labour since Mr Key became National leader in December 2006 but apart from a surge in popularity in May following his role in the anti-smacking Bill compromise, Miss Clark has convincingly commanded the preferred prime minister polling.
A separate Marae-Digipoll has shown, for the first time, the Maori Party sweeping all seven Maori electorates from Labour.
The poll of 1003 Maori voters includes 665 registered on the Maori roll and 338 on the general roll.
The poll of who voters would choose in their electorate seat covers fewer than 200 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8%.
Overall, it showed Maori voters on both rolls preferring to give their party vote to the Maori Party by 38% to Labour's 37% with National in third on 15%.
