‘I rang Luxon’: James Christmas on his jump from National to ACT
Friday, 8 May 2026
ACT’s new Tāmaki candidate knew his change of allegiance from the National Party would ruffle some feathers, so much so that he called up the Prime Minister in advance to let him know.
James Christmas was once touted as a future Attorney-General for the National Party, but after failing to enter Parliament in 2023 - due to an unexpectedly low list ranking - he was revealed last month as having joined ACT. It’s understood he was already in conversations to take up a spot on the party’s list at this election, but the chance to run in the once true-blue seat of Tāmaki was too good to miss.
That opportunity emerged after ACT’s deputy, Brooke van Velden, who grabbed the seat off National’s Simon O’Connor in 2023, announced her unexpected departure from politics at the election.
“Most of them understand what's happened, and I tried to leave things nicely,” Christmas tells The Post of his conversations with National faithful since the announcement.
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“I rang Luxon, and I rang everyone else directly and told them and explained it. I rang them all the day before.”
Luxon, unsurprisingly, was “disappointed” (he was one of the figures that lured Christmas to National in the first place) but understanding.
“He didn't give me sort of a raving endorsement to go and do it, but he said he understood, and he was disappointed … and we left it nicely like that,” Christmas says.
“I'm glad I did it, because those phone calls are always awkward, and to be honest, after I made the decision to do it, those phone calls to him and the party president … were the ones I was dreading, but I was really pleased I actually did them, because it’s not the sort of thing you want to do via a text.”
Christmas’s candidacy throws another bombshell into an electorate race that was traditionally rather mundane - it was, for six decades, a National stronghold.
When van Velden was still in the race, she seemed likely to hold onto it - though National’s candidate, Mahesh Muralidhar, told the Sunday Star-Times in March he believed the ACT deputy had not prioritised the community while balancing her role as a cabinet minister.
Then, when it looked as though ACT may have to scramble to find a candidate, there was a view that it was now National’s to lose.
With Christmas - a well-respected public law barrister - the race is back on. He’s smart, fresh-faced and has government experience, having spent a decade in Wellington, including as an adviser to John Key. He’s also a Treaty expert, something that will benefit ACT should it look to revive a version of its controversial Treaty Principles Bill.
Throw in Labour’s Max Harris, another well-respected lawyer, though facing an uphill challenge given the seat has not been won by Labour since 1957, and the Tāmaki competition feels more energised than it has in years.
“It could actually be quite an interesting kind of race,” says Christmas. “I know Max pretty well - we've got pretty different politics [but] with similar interests.”
Christmas is less open to discussing Muralidhar, simply saying: “I saw his campaign in 2023 [for Auckland Central].” Muralidhar came second, behind the Greens’ Chlöe Swarbrick.
Since being confirmed as a candidate, Christmas has hit the ground running. In the past 10 days 15,000 pamphlets have been delivered around the electorate, with the help of party volunteers.
The pamphlets conclude by saying: “No matter who you give your party vote to, I’m asking you to lend me your electorate vote…”
That may suggest, as some on social media have leapt upon, that Christmas is running a one-tick campaign.
He clarifies that he is still gunning to increase ACT’s party vote, but is most interested in retaining a centre-right government - one with himself in the mix.
“My message out there is that [voters] should be going for the person they think will be the best local MP and particularly for people who want there to be a centre right government, my message to them is, by voting for me, you get a centre right government - but you still get the representative you want,” he says.
It appears to be an olive branch to diehard National voters who may feel uncomfortable offering their party vote to ACT. It is, says Christmas, a similar message to that put forward by van Velden - successfully - in 2023.
“I'd like them to vote for ACT, but I don't want that to be a barrier. If someone's a dyed in the wool Nat, that's not going to change. I still want them to flick me their electorate vote, because it doesn't change the result for a centre-right government, other than they get me there as part of it. There are people who will vote for me who might not vote for ACT. That's what happened with Brooke.”
But won’t Tāmaki voters get two MPs for the price of one, if they vote for National?
Given Christmas’s credentials, the departure of a senior MP, and the importance of the Tāmaki race, it would seem that he is poised to secure a cosy position on ACT’s list. It would be bad optics in Tāmaki to throw resource behind a local campaign and then put Christmas in an unwinnable list position.
But Christmas says nothing is guaranteed. Last month’s 1News Verian poll showed ACT only winning eight seats, three fewer than in 2023, which would mean he would have to be placed ahead of sitting MPs to get in without winning a seat.
He’s “learned not to count [his] chickens before they hatch”, citing his 2023 list placing for National - 28, when he had been “basically told” he could expect a higher spot. The flipside, he notes, is that current polling shows he would likely have been a one-term National MP anyway. “Things have a way of working out.”
With the shape of Tāmaki changing this year, thanks to a recent boundary review, to take in parts of Labour-friendly Point England, Christmas says he’s determined to be as visible as possible in the electorate between now and November 7.
“[The] campaign office is about to open … and I've got a bloody good electorate committee - they were Brooke’s people, and most of them ran the campaign with Brooke last time, and they're just totally on board.”
During a visit to St Heliers, in the heart of Tāmaki, Christmas is keen to discuss the crossovers he sees between being a local MP and a government one.
ACT also has a representative - Amanda Lockyear - on the Ōrakei Local Board which is within the Tāmaki electorate.
Meeting the The Post at the local Dingle Dell Reserve, which often floods during rainy weather as a result of decades-old infrastructure, Christmas points out that it’s an example of how local government decision-making hits up against central government.
While the council has oversight of the reserve, it is the government that makes decisions on intensification - an issue that continues to rear its head.
It’s something he’s expecting will come up at a public meeting being held tonight, the first since his campaign officially launched.
He’s spending today swotting up for it, expecting questions on just about every topic. Joining him at the meeting will be van Velden, in a symbolic changing of the guard. Van Velden remains the local MP until November, but her ongoing presence on the campaign trail could be what’s needed to seal the deal if Tāmaki wants an early Christmas.