A One News poll tonight put National on 53 percent support, up 2 points since its last poll a month ago. It puts Labour on 35 percent, a drop of 2 points.
National leader John Key's popularity was also up from 36 percent to 40 percent, while Prime Minister Helen Clark's dropped from 33 percent to 31 percent.
The poll runs counter to a recent trend that has seen Labour's support building again after months of decline and possibly shows it has taken a hit over its association with NZ First.
The Green Party registers 5 percent, up from 3.5 percent last month, making it the only minor party to hit the 5 percent threshold.
ACT is the next highest-rating party, coming in at 2 percent -- up from 0.6 percent last month -- possibly on the back of leader Rodney Hide's attacks on NZ First leader Winston Peters.
NZ First slipped from 2.6 percent to 1.8 percent -- reflecting the widespread criticism it has suffered as a result of the undeclared donations scandal.
It now faces a massive uphill struggle to get over the vital 5 percent mark.
Mr Peters still registered 3 percent support as preferred prime minister, but that was down 1 point from last month.
The Maori Party dropped back from 3 percent last month to 1.8 percent.
United Future and the Progressives did not register.
If the poll was translated into an election result, National would be able to govern alone with 66 seats.
Labour would have 43 seats and the Green Party six.
Based on the assumption the Maori Party, ACT, United Future and the Progressives all won electorate seats they would get four, three, one and one seats respectively.
The poll of 1000 people, with a margin of error of 3.1 percent was conducted between last Saturday and Thursday night -- a day before Miss Clark announced the election date of November 8.
