Latest poll shows National, Act could form govt

The latest political poll has National nudging past Labour and able to form a government with the Act Party.

But voters still don’t appear to be resonating with National leader Christopher Luxon who is at his lowest favourability rating since becoming leader in November 2021.

The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll was released today, revealing Labour had dropped just over three points in the past month to 33.8% of the party vote, falling behind National which dropped by just under one point to 35.6%.

The big winner was Act, bumping up 3.2 points to 12.7%. The results would mean National at 46 seats and Act on 16 could form a government with 62 out of the 120 seats.

The Green Party was relatively stable at 7% (up 0.3 points since April). Te Pāti Māori was on 3.7%, up 0.8 points.

Those results for Parliament’s current left-wing parties would see Labour get 44 seats, the Green Party nine seats and Te Pāti Māori five seats.

While the centre-right would be in a position to form a government, Prime Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins continues to prove far more popular than National’s Luxon.

Hipkins’ net favourability score was positive 22% - six points lower than last month and down 11 points on his March peak of positive 33%.

Luxon meanwhile was at negative 7%, meaning more people gave him an unfavourable rating than favourable.

This was his lowest level since he became National Party leader in November 2021. Act Party leader David Seymour was on negative 11%.

Among National voters, Hipkins had a slightly positive net favourability rating of 7% while Luxon had a score of negative 56% with Labour voters.

Among undecided voters, Hipkins had a positive net favourability of 30%, while Luxon was on negative 26%.

The poll was conducted between May 2 and May 7 and included 1000 respondents.