Luxon rules out stepping aside after shock poll result
Friday, 6 March 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has ruled out the possibility of stepping aside, after a shock political poll was said to have left him considering his options.
The Taxpayers Union Curia poll results, released on Friday, showed just 28.4% support for National, its worst result since the turmoil of 2020 and 2021. Dropping below 30% has previously been seen as a sign of failure from National MPs.
But the prime minister ruled out any leadership change in an interview with Newstalk ZB on Friday afternoon, saying his party stood behind him.
“Absolutely not,” he said, when asked if he would stand aside.
He said he wasn’t concerned by the latest poll - or any other public poll - because National had its own internal polls. He wouldn’t say what that internal polling said.
“Well, I don’t talk about it, obviously. But I would reassure you, if there was a problem, I would be doing something about it. But we are long way away from what we saw being published in the TPU poll today,” he said.
Stuff understands National is polling at around 32% in its internal polling.
Asked if there was number that would make him reconsider his position, Luxon said that possibility hadn’t crossed his mind.
“It’s not something I’ve thought about at all, and I haven’t discussed it with anybody,” he said. “I have the full support of my team and my caucus.”
A shock poll result
As reported earlier by Stuff, and other outlets, National has sunk below 30%. It had the support of just 28.4% of respondents - a new low for the party under the leadership of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The confirmed results showed Labour at 34.4%, six points ahead of National.
The Greens were at 10.5%, with NZ First close at 9.7%.
ACT was at 7.5%. And Te Pāti Māori remained below the 5% threshold, at 3.2%.
At 28.4%, National is only slightly above its 2020 election low of 25.58%. It has fallen almost 10 points since the 2023 election, when National had support from 38.08% of voters.
This is the worst poll result for National since the party was in turmoil in 2020. Back then, Simon Bridges lost the leadership when he polled at 29%.
Bad poll ends bad week for Luxon
National deputy leader Nicola Willis conceded the results were bad.
“It is not a good number,” Willis said, during an interview on Newstalk ZB. “If that was the number National got on the actual election, that would not be an acceptable result. We have to do better than that.”
She said it had been a “challenging week” for the prime minister.
“I actually respect him being vulnerable enough to say, well actually, I misspoke during the week. There has been a lot of focus on that,” she said, referring to Monday’s press conference where Luxon had said “any action” to stop Iran getting a nuke was “a good thing”. He later told reporters he misspoke.
Luxon, on Friday, suggested his issue communicating wasn’t necessarily a bad sign.
“Yeah, but I freely admit I’m not a career politician. I’m not always going to have the perfect, tidy sound bite like someone who has been there 20 years might do. … But that’s not what I’m there to do,” he said.
Labour more trusted on everything except the economy and spending
The Taxpayers Union also asked respondents which party, National or Labour, was more trustworthy to manage certain issues.
National was ahead on managing the economy and “spending”.
Labour was ahead on environment, housing, safety, taxes, education, inflation, poverty and health.
On the question of who was more trustworthy on tax, the Taxpayers Union - which is a lobby group that campaigns against higher taxes - asked: “Which party will not increase taxes on you?”
National has been campaigning hard against Labour on tax, with marketing campaigns saying the party can’t be trusted not to raise taxes.
The Taxpayers Union commissioned Curia, which polled 1000 people online and by phone between March 1 and 3. The results have a 3.1% margin of error.