Christopher Luxon opts for emergency escape route to hold on to his leadership

Wednesday, 22 April 2026

When Christopher Luxon won a confidence vote after a long National Party caucus meeting, he ran.

He left the meeting with deputy leader Nicola Willis, while the rest of his caucus continued talking. As they stepped out of the caucus room, they took the first door out of there. It was Parliament’s emergency exit.

The white-tiled, dimly lit emergency escape path took Luxon and Willis away from waiting reporters. Everyone saw them leave early, at 12.36pm, nearly three hours after the usually much shorter meeting started. But nobody knew if they were still leading the National Party and nobody knew where they were going.

Luxon’s own personal protection officers were just as confused, scattering police across Parliament to cover any situation. Luxon’s own staff had no clue, either.

A social media videographer from Luxon’s office set up twice on Parliament’s “black and white tiles” for press conferences that never happened. The first no-show happened before the caucus meeting, when Luxon didn’t turn up for his routine pre-caucus press conference.

Reporters were told he would speak after the meeting. But then he darted down the emergency exit on a narrow stairway that leads either to Opposition offices on the upper floors, or the basement and tunnel system which connects the buildings of Government and Parliament.

When Luxon emerged in the Beehive, he was reticent and far from celebratory. He had survived a run on his leadership, proving he had the numbers to lead the National Party. But he did not want to talk about it.

His staff brought a music stand down from the ninth floor of the Beehive to level one, and called reporters to a press conference where Luxon confirmed he called the confidence vote on himself.

From behind the music stand, he said: “I'm going to read a short prepared statement.”

He spoke at reporters for 2 minutes and 21 seconds.

“Kiwis elected me to deal with the cost of living, to get our economy back, creating jobs and lifting incomes and improving the education of our kids,” he said.

He continued, “For the last week, there has been intense media speculation about my leadership and about who said what to whom. Today, our caucus had a good, honest, discussion.”

Following that discussion, he said he moved for a confidence vote. “That motion was passed, confirming what I have been saying. I have the support of my caucus as their leader.”

He left soon after, refusing to answer a single question from any reporter. He appeared to blame “the media” for a lot of his troubles, which reached boiling point on Friday.

He called recent reports about his MPs’ grumblings a “media soap opera”.

The latest season of said soap opera started on Thursday. Claims from National Party sources were put to Luxon’s office to get his response to accounts from within his own party that he was refusing to meet chief whip Stuart Smith, who wanted to let him know about the concerns some MPs have.

The initial story was published by the NZ Herald on Friday morning. It was quickly verified by other media, including Stuff, citing caucus sources.

The story goes that Smith, as chief whip, was tasked with telling Luxon he was losing support from some of the caucus.

One issue was that they weren’t happy about the party’s performance, polling at around - or under - 30% support. That’s a big drop which will cost National Party seats unless they turn it around.

But Luxon and Smith, for whatever reason, never had that tough conversation.

Stuff has been trying to talk to Smith about this for a week. He refused to offer his side of the story. He was also refusing to even say he supported Luxon… that was, until Tuesday morning.

Smith, the MP for Kaikōura at the centre of this drama, never showed up.

On Monday, he told The Post he was struggling to get to Wellington due to the weather.

Early on Tuesday morning, Stuff also heard he was caught up in the weather. By 8.44am, that excuse no longer made sense when a plane from Blenheim landed at Wellington Airport and Smith wasn’t on it.

Forty minutes later, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement on behalf of Smith. It provided a completely different explanation for his absence.

“I am not attending caucus today due to a longstanding personal appointment.

“I did want to confirm that I did not contact the prime minister or his office seeking a meeting.

“I am disappointed by recent speculative media coverage. The prime minister has my full support,” it said.

Via text, Stuff asked Smith to confirm he wrote that statement. At 9.55am he read our question, but he never replied to confirm those were his words.

With the chief whip missing in action, junior whip Suze Redmayne had to take charge during one of the most extraordinary days in National Party history.

She arrived at Parliament, walking through the rain at 7.15am. She kept walking as Stuff asked why she and Smith hadn’t spoken out to back Luxon earlier.

“I 100% support Christopher Luxon,” she said. What about Smith? “You have to ask Stuart that… I 100% support Christopher Luxon,” she said again.

And asked whether there would be a confidence vote, she said she had “no idea”.

That vote did happen. The ballot is secret, normally counted by the whips.

Redmayne, bizarrely, wouldn’t confirm she counted it. But Stuff did see her and party president Sylvia Wood go into a room together for 15 minutes before the caucus meeting concluded.

All through the day, Redmayne darted down corridors in what looked like attempts to avoid reporters asking what was going on with her caucus. At one point, she dived behind a temporary bar - behind empty wine glasses - as Stuff asked: “Why is Stuart Smith not here?”

MPs know how they voted, but only a few know the actual result. Unlike last week when he was asked about caucus support, on Tuesday Luxon said he had support - but didn’t claim “full support” from his caucus.

Willis described the win as “an emphatic majority”.

Simeon Brown, the newly appointed campaign chairperson, told any unhappy MPs they should quit the party.

“Caucus members who wish to talk to media should consider whether they should quit the leaking or quit the party,” he said.

Some MPs described the caucus discussion as helpful.

Dan Bidois said it was “cathartic”.

On his way into the Beehive on Tuesday morning, new defence minister Chris Penk said it was important the caucus heard and understood the concerns of those who were unhappy.

“I’d like to know what the concerns are. If the feeling is that we can and should do better to serve the people of New Zealand, then of course we should be up to that,” he told Stuff.

Luxon said the caucus vote meant “the matter is now closed”.

Unfortunately for him, his former deputy prime minister, NZ First leader Winston Peters, believes that’s unlikely.

Commenting on the extraordinary events, Peters said: 'Well, look, it doesn't look good, does it? I mean, it's just not good.'

He said it wasn't smart of Luxon to call his own confidence vote.

“There's always inevitable consequences. It's not the [last] time this is going to happen, you see…

“All I’m saying is, this is a very bad move. There’s going to be consequences for that,” he said.

What those consequences would be remained unanswered, just as many questions - some very basic - were, after a remarkable day in the Parliament.