Support For Labour Shrinks, Ardern Still Nation's Preferred PM

Support for the ruling Labour Party fell by almost 10pp to 43% in the latest Newshub-Reid poll, but Jacinda Ardern remained the nation's preferred Prime Minister, with 45.5% (down 2.6pp vs. previous poll) of respondents favouring her over other party leaders. Nonetheless, the share of voters who think she's doing a good job shrank 8.9pp to 60.7%. Political analysts attributed the slip in Labour's polling performance to a range of issues, including slow Covid-19 vaccine rollout, immigration policies, nurses' strikes or the housing bubble.

• PM Ardern kept a straight face as she told the AM Show that "between ourselves and the Greens - there's still a solid majority there". But at the same time, she used weekend TV interviews to drop hints about imminent tweaks to border rules, intended to alleviate workforce shortages in agriculture and horticulture sectors.
• The poll was bad news for Judith Collins, leader of the main opposition National Party. While support for National rose 1.7pp to 28.7%, the backing for Collins's prime ministerial bid fell 2.6pp to 8.2%.
• This allowed ACT leader Seymour to leapfrog Collins, as he gained 3pp landing at 8.6%. His party also made a relatively sizeable gain of 4.2pp, which put it at 11.1%. When asked to choose between Seymour and Collins, voters chose ACT leader by a wide margin of 41.7% to 25.9%. Adding insult to injury, Seymour outpolled Collins even among National supporters.
• The results come at a sensitive time, with the National Party due to hold their 85th Annual General Meeting & Conference this weekend. Collins' poor result inspired speculation that her days as party leader are counted. Newshub's Tova O'Brien cited party sources suggesting that "it's a matter of time when she's rolled," which is likely to happen "next year".
• The Newshub-Reid poll was conducted over Jul 22 - 29 and has a margin of error of 3.3%. The next general election is not due until 2023.

Source: MNI/Newshub