Bridges - 'I'm the leader and I'm staying'

National Party leader Simon Bridges. Photo: RNZ
National Party leader Simon Bridges. Photo: RNZ
National leader Simon Bridges is toughing out one of his party's worst poll results, saying it's not a surprising result at a time of crisis.

He said it's happening all over the world and Ardern has got "wall to wall coverage".

He said voters should wait until the election campaign. "National has the team and the track record."

Bridges said: "I'm the leader and I'm staying."

Bridges is this morning fronting up to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, following the worst poll result for his party in recent memory.

A Newshub/Reid Research poll last night put National at just 30% - compared to 56.5% for Labour.

And it's more bad news for Bridges when it comes to the preferred Prime Minister rankings – just 4.5% of New Zealanders think he should be in charge of the government.

That is light years behind Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was at 59.5 cent on the rating – up 20.8 percentage points on the last poll; the highest any Prime Minister has scored in Reid Research's polling history.

The numbers would mean Labour would have 72 seats in the House, enough to form a government without any support partners.

National, on the other hand, would win just 39 seats – a drop of 16 seats on their current allocation.

Most of the Reid Research poll was conducted prior to last week's Budget and takes into account public sentiment in the final days of the level three lockdown.

The poll also showed that more than 90% of New Zealanders favoured the lockdown measures, despite the economic pain they caused.

The electorate tends to favour Prime Ministers and government during times of crisis.

Former Prime Minister John Key reached similar heights following the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes.

The poll comes just months before all parties in Parliament begin gearing up for September's election.

Comments

It's my bat and it's my ball.......

Jacinda Ardern has steered the country through three crises.