Mr English will now have some serious thinking to do over the next few days as he decides on which members of the current Cabinet to sack and which of the MPs outside of Cabinet to promote. For eight years, Prime Minister John Key has been the face of the National Party and Mr English has played along as his faithful deputy. Now, Mr English needs to put the past behind him and focus on leading a party which will be undoubtedly supportive but a caucus which will harbour some resentment until the jobs are handed out.
It would not be surprising to see some longer-term members reconsidering their decisions to stand in the 2017 election.
And there is another possible issue facing the incoming prime minister — a by-election.
Former Labour leader David Shearer is now likely to call a by-election in the former Labour stronghold of Mt Albert.
His name has been proposed to the United Nations Secretary-general to be his Special Representative in South Sudan. The matter is currently before the Security Council for its decision. With a history of working for the UN, Mr Shearer will not have made his intentions public without some certainty of the appointment being ratified. Mr Shearer was the unluckiest leader in the revolving door policy operated by Labour. He was by far the most personable, but ambitions of others overtook him and he was sidelined. He will be replaced in Labour by another party apparatchik.
Mr English will now have to decide whether to allow a by-election to run, where the National candidate will get beaten, as they did in Mt Roskill, or call an early election in autumn next year.
Holding a by-election will further drain Labour’s resources both financially and physically. To ensure Mt Roskill stayed Labour, the party threw everything it had at the campaign. It will be a lot to ask the party faithful to again rally to the cause.
An autumn general election makes sense in many ways. Mr English is a known politician but many voters cannot remember his last term as the leader of the National Party given it was 14 years ago. Mr English has admirable qualities as a politician, husband and father. His economic stewardship has kept New Zealand safe during the various global financial crises overtaking other parts of the world.
However, Mr English is seen as solid, in the mould of a Jim Bolger-type prime minister. He needs to hit the road, selling himself and his ideas to the country to galvanise support in the way Mr Key did. It is not enough to expect the voters to latch on to a cautious leader. The country needs and deserves to see the prime minister in action, hearing his plans and learning what makes the man.
Labour says it is ready for an election at any time, and it may be time to put that to the test. In Britain, Theresa May inherited the job of prime minister when David Cameron resigned over the loss of the Brexit vote. In Australia, leaders change between elections without the voting public getting their say in the process.
Dame Jenny Shipley overthrew Mr Bolger to become New Zealand’s first woman prime minister but she was rejected overwhelming by voters at the earliest possible election.
It will be wise for the former farmer from Dipton to place himself in front of voters and seek his own mandate, rather than just inheriting the mantle from another.
