Luxon is inviting more leadership challenges with ‘circus’ of caucus vote, Peters says
Wednesday, 22 April 2026
Tension between NZ First and National is rising after Christopher Luxon’s self-inflicted confidence vote, which Winston Peters says came as an unwelcome surprise to National’s coalition partners.
Peters is now calling National’s leaders and MPs “inexperienced”, “egotistical”, and self-obsessed. He says they care more about the title of “leader” than they do about achieving real world results. Further, he claims to know which MPs are backing Luxon and is predicting future leadership challenges.
Luxon’s confidence vote “invites another one,” Peters said, “and you know when the next one will come? Not long after the next polls come out.”
On Tuesday, Peters claimed to know how the National caucus voted. Even the caucus said it didn’t know, as it was a secret ballot. But Peters, asked on TVNZ if Luxon had won by a narrow margin, replied: “It’s worrying, that’s the point.”
Peters’ prediction is in stark contrast to Luxon’s hopes. On Tuesday, the prime minister said it was time to move on. “The matter is now closed,” he said.
Deputy leader Nicola Willis hit back at Peters on Wednesday morning, saying he was playing politics ahead of the election. Peters’ NZ First has been surging in the polls, reaching up to 15% in some, at the expense of a flagging National Party.
Rather than National’s leadership questions being a threat to Government stability, Willis said NZ First’s track record showed it was the unstable one.
“There’s always the risk with New Zealand First - it’s a live risk - that they get into bed with Hipkins, Chloe Swarbrick and the Greens. That is a bad recipe,” she told Newstalk ZB.
Of Peters, she said: “I don’t know what his game is.”
Luxon took a similar line, telling Newstalk ZB that Peters was not undermining him but instead simply had a different agenda to National.
“They’re the guys that claim to be socially conservative and then put Jacinda Ardern into power,” Luxon said.
Peters’ retorted: “Yeah, and I put Jim Bolger in power, too. I put National in power and I put Helen Clark in power. At the end of the day, it’s the deal that we did, and we kept our word.”
Peters said it was wrong of Luxon to call his own confidence vote without giving NZ First a heads up. He said the coalition deal’s “no surprises” clause meant he should have known.
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon with Stuff’s Samantha Hayes, Peters said he “didn’t go on the attack” against National - he simply answered questions about the wisdom of Luxon’s confidence vote.
“I find this is a terrible distraction from cost of living, power prices, fuel supply,” he said. “All of these things are front of mind, and we’ve got this circus going on.”
Peters, asked by Hayes if he would rule out forming a government with the Labour Party, said, “I did that four years ago - why are you asking that question today?”
Earlier on Wednesday, Peters criticised the internal National Party dynamics, telling RNZ there were “too many people with too little experience giving their views about what the outcome should be”.
That inexperience, he said, showed in real terms and in political game play. He said National promised it could quickly fix everything in 2023 and hadn’t been able to deliver on those promises. In politics, he suggested Luxon’s confidence vote showed a lack of political experience.
“It promotes doubt. It promotes uncertainty. It promotes division at a time when the public… the public wants stability and they want it with great clarity because it’s their lives we are trying to help here,” Peters said on TVNZ.
“In the end, they matter. But they have been sidelined in this sort of egotrip that’s going on when it comes to leadership challenges.”