Labour leader takes swipe at PM after another poll defeat for National
Friday, 14 March 2025
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party trails Labour by three points, the biggest gap since the election.
On these numbers, Labour and the Greens could form a government with the support of either NZ First or Te Pāti Māori.
Luxon said voters would be able to better judge his record next year.
Another poll shows a concerning trend for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, with Labour growing its lead over his National Party.
On these numbers, Chris Hipkins would be able to lead a three-party coalition government if an election was held today.
The latest political poll, from Talbot Mills, showed the Labour Party sitting three points above National. That is the biggest margin, yet, from any poll since the 2023 election.
It comes after a bad start to the year for the coalition Government, which has had poll after poll show declining support for its three parties and for Luxon as prime minister.
The polling, which was done for Talbot Mills’ corporate clients and seen by Stuff, became public as Luxon was giving closing remarks at the Infrastructure Investment Summit.
Those results had Labour in the lead, with 34% support.
National remained in the thirties, at 31%.
Both ACT and the Green parties were fairly steady at 10%. And NZ First was above the crucial 5% threshold, sitting at 6.1%.
Te Pāti Māori was at 4.4%, which would be okay for the party assuming it continued to win electorate seats.
On these numbers, there would be a change of Government.
A Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori coalition would have 61 seats - a one seat majority.
If NZ First was willing to work with Labour and the Greens again, those three parties would together hold 63 seats - giving them a safer hold of power.
Asked about the falling support for his Government as the summit came to an end, Luxon said he’d be judged next year at the election.
“To be honest, I’m just really focused on the task at hand,” he told Stuff.
When asked about the latest poll, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National had failed to deliver.
“Christopher Luxon promised to make people's lives easier, but hasn't. Instead the choices he's made have pushed the country into recession, seen thousands of people lose their jobs, more people homeless and a health system that isn't meeting the needs of many Kiwis,” Hipkins said.
“We have a lot of hard work to do in the next 18 months, but we are determined to show New Zealanders a better choice.”
Luxon and his ministers had put a lot of weight on this week’s summit.
It was the centrepiece event announced as part of the Government’s “going for growth” re-brand, which it launched in January. Aware of the incoming turn in public support, Luxon started the year with a Cabinet reshuffle and an intense focus on talking about economic growth.
As he and his MPs have been asked about poor polling in the months since, they have all responded with comments about focusing on the economy.
Luxon, on Friday, said voters should judge for themselves in 2026 whether he has been able to improve the economy. He argued that events such as this summit, and also his trade trip to India next week, should deliver results.
The Talbot Mills corporate poll spoke to just over 1000 people between March 1 and 10. It had a 3% margin of error.
It was released a few days after the Taxpayers Union Curia poll, which was conducted between March 2 and 4. That poll showed Labour with a smaller margin over National.
Labour had 34.1% support, with National on 33.6%.