Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he is confident he has Erica Stanford's full support for his leadership.

Stanford has backed the Prime Minister — insisting she didn't challenge him for the leadership.

Four days after the confidence vote in her leader, five days after she walked through Wellington airport on her way to it and said nothing, the education minister held a last-minute media stand up on Sunday afternoon to explain why she didn't give Christopher Luxon her backing in the lead up to last week's emergency meeting.

Defence Minister Chris Penk ended up taking the fall for the botched leadership coup — losing his ministerial portfolios before quitting.

But there's been some suggestions he was merely the numbers man for either Erica Stanford or Chris Bishop.

Both deny that was the case.

Luxon saidon Monday he was in no doubt of Stanford's backing, in both private conversaions, and public statements.

"It's a pretty intense situation when you turn up at an airport and you've got a media scrum that's in full white heat mode. It's not a surprise that some of my caucus will freeze," he said.

"I know I have her full support — always have".

He said Chris Penk was "working for himself", and had launched a leadership bid in caucus that failed.

He said he didn't know what the caucus vote was but that he had full support of his caucus.

Luxon said the last week had been "pretty tough" but the issue had now been resolved.

He had been watching leadership challenges in Australia and the UK, and his approach was to get everyone — including backbenchers — to discuss their concerns.