‘The caucus has answered clearly and decisively’: Luxon forces leadership confidence vote and survives

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon forced a confidence vote on his leadership and has survived, after a near three-hour National Party caucus meeting.

Luxon read out a short statement following the meeting at a brief press conference, after which he refused to take questions.

“I moved a formal motion of confidence in my leadership. That motion was passed, confirming what I have been saying: I have the support of my caucus as their leader, the caucus has answered clearly and decisively,” he said.

“It has backed my leadership. And that matter is now closed, and I won't be commenting further on it.”

He did not mention whether the vote was unanimous. Finance Minister Nicola Willis later explained that by convention these votes are secret, and only the scrutineer of the vote knows the exact numbers - with the leadership and wider caucus left in the dark.

Luxon said there had been intense media speculation about his leadership and “whom said what to whom” and there had been a “good, honest discussion” during the caucus meeting.

“Our team is more determined than ever to serve Kiwis and to win the election.”

His move to reaffirm his party’s backing came after a frenzied week of media speculation into his leadership, sparked by poor polling results and a now-denied story that suggested Luxon “ghosted” chief whip Stuart Smith.

Luxon’s statement is in full at the bottom of this story.

Winston Peters says vote was unwise

NZ First leader Winston Peters said the confidence vote was not a good move by Luxon.

“All I'm saying, this is a very bad move. There are going to be consequences,” Peters said.

“We've got all these major problems we should be dealing with, and we're wasting our time on this stuff.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National was more focused on itself than the country’s problems.

“We're in the midst of a potential fuel crisis. We already had a cost of living crisis before the fuel crisis started, and the National Party's busy fighting amongst themselves,” he said.

He suggested that if Luxon had lost even a handful of his MPs’ confidence he had lost the confidence of the House and thus should no longer be prime minister.

“They absolutely need to reveal whether Christopher Luxon still enjoys the majority support in the House,” Hipkins said.

ACT leader David Seymour said he never had any doubt about Luxon’s support.

“I think that he's done a good job uniting his own party and uniting this coalition government and the ACT Party has been able to do a lot of good work fixing what matters for New Zealanders.”

Seymour suggested the media was being obsessive over the matter and when “push came to shove” there was no substance to the reporting.

MPs show support for Luxon

Emerging from the caucus meeting, Mark Mitchell, Paul Goldsmith and Chris Penk said the prime minister has their confidence.

Earlier, Speaker Gerry Brownlee was seen entering the meeting - Speakers typically do not attend caucus meetings but can be called in if votes are held.

Willis said Luxon wanted to draw a line under the media speculation.

“What was very clear was that the caucus sent an emphatic message that we have confidence in our leader. We back him, we back our prime minister, and we want to get back to focusing on the issues that matter to New Zealanders, which are their cost of living, the fuel crisis, the price of their mortgage, keeping their community safe,” Willis said.

Senior minister Chris Bishop said he understood the public interest in the leadership of the National Party but the party had now affirmed its support in Luxon and that was “all there is to it”.

He said he was not aware of anyone who voted against Luxon and the big message from caucus was to stop leaking.

“I think what's most regrettable - when we had a bit of a conversation about this as a caucus - is the sort of briefing to the media, anonymously by any number of people,” Bishop said.

Senior Minister Simeon Brown earlier suggested that anyone leaking should “quit leaking or quit the party”.

Goldsmith said he had confidence in the party leader.

“The prime minister is the prime minister and he’s doing a great job.”

National MP Dan Bidois said he “didn't know” if the vote was unanimous and described the meeting as “cathartic”.

Chris Penk said the meeting took a long time because they had lots to discuss but would not provide further details.

“We had good conversations about how to do government well and also to campaign well.”

Hosking names five ‘moaners’

Luxon on Monday morning said there were “probably” five MPs in the party “moaning and frustrated”.

Just as National MPs filed into Parliament on Tuesday morning, Newstalk ZB host Hosking, long a sympathetic ear to Luxon, revealed who he alleged were the “famous five” “troublemaking” MPs: Joseph Mooney, Tim van de Molen, Barbara Kuriger, Andrew Bayly, and Sam Uffindell.

Van de Molen told reporters he was fully behind Luxon as he arrived at Wellington Airport and denied being one of the five.

“No - I’m always raising concerns from my constituents as part of my role as MP for Waikato,” but this didn’t include Luxon’s leadership. Asked why Hosking had named him, he replied: “I’m not answering that.”

Asked if he had written a letter of no confidence for Stuart Smith, as whip, to pass on, van de Molen did not respond.

Defence Minister Chris Penk said clearly at least one MP had been talking to the media.

“Which is too many,” Penk said.

“I think it'd be really helpful if we all ensure that we're on the same page, which is the right page, about the things that people actually send us to this place to discuss.“

Commerce Minister Cameron Brewer said he wanted the conversation at caucus on Tuesday to “draw a line” under the matter as National needed “better caucus discipline”.

“I’m sure we're going to draw a line under under it today to improve our party discipline, because that's been one of our strengths for the last two and a half years,” Brewer said.

“We will have an intense conversation and discussion and come out behind Christopher Luxon to get on with the job and win the election in November.”

National MP Vanessa Weenink said “we’d all rather be doing better” and she would “much rather it was higher”.

Whip Stuart Smith said he could not make it to caucus due to a 'longstanding personal commitment'.

Luxon’s statement in full

I’m going to read a short prepared statement, and then I won’t be taking any further questions beyond that.

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. That is what I came to Parliament to do, and that is what I’ll keep doing.

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.

Our team is more determined than ever to serve Kiwis and to win the election. To put that media speculation to rest, I moved a formal motion of confidence in my leadership. That motion was passed, confirming what I have been saying: I have the support of my caucus as their leader.

The caucus has answered clearly and decisively. It has backed my leadership.

That matter is now closed and I won’t be commenting further on it. Looking out at the world today, it is clear that we are living in uncertain and volatile times and that underscores the importance of strong economic management to steer New Zealanders through this time and provide the security that they deserve.

A free press is important in a democracy. You give citizens the chance to know the truth about their countries and their governments and hold leaders like me accountable, and I welcome that. But if the media want to keep focussing on speculation and rumour, I am not going to engage.

Kiwis expect the media to ask us the tough questions about our policies, to hold us to account for our pledges to New Zealanders, and to interrogate us about the things that matter to them. They are not interested in this media cycle.

Everyday Kiwis will not be losing sleep over political side shows here in Wellington, they’ll be thinking about their mortgage, their kids’ education, and the safety and security of their community.

My message to New Zealanders today, as it is every day, is that I’m exclusively focussed on fixing this economy and building a better New Zealand for our children and grandchildren, the future of our country and the pressures that Kiwis face in response to global uncertainty is just way too important.

I’m genuinely optimistic about New Zealand because this country has the talent. We have the institutions, the natural endowments and most importantly, the people to come through this and to build something remarkable. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again.