worrying polls<\/a>.<\/p>\nAddressing reporters at Parliament on Tuesday, Bishop said he was “definitely not” planning to roll Luxon as leader and dismissed the commentary as people “interviewing their typewriters”.<\/p>\n
Asked if he could give a firm commitment that Luxon would remain prime minister through to the election, Bishop responded simply: “yes”.<\/p>\n
Bishop was asked several times whether Luxon was the best person for the top job, to which he said Luxon was “fantastic” and “outstanding”.<\/p>\n
He eventually responded directly: “Correct… absolutely, he’s doing a wonderful job as prime minister.”<\/p>\n
“We’re in difficult economic times, as I think everybody knows, and this is the first time we’ve had a three-way coalition Cabinet in New Zealand history,” Bishop said.<\/p>\n
“That produces its own challenges and trials and tribulations. But he’s doing an excellent job leading a government that is… firmly focused on long term structural reform to drive higher living standards.”<\/p>\n
Bishop said he spoke to Luxon “almost every day” including about the rumours.<\/p>\n
![\"Erica_Stanford\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4K29UWH_image_4K2SAJF_Erica_Stanford_1_jpg__a_BACCd2AD_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nErica Stanford shrugged off questions.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, another MP touted as a future leader Erica Stanford shrugged off a question over whether anyone had approached her about potentially taking over.<\/p>\n
“All I’m concentrated on… is doing my job,” she said. “I don’t talk to people about leadership.”<\/p>\n
Standing alongside Stanford, Luxon said she was doing an “outstanding job” and the National Party had a “great team doing an amazing job”.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would step down if National sunk below a certain level in the polls, Luxon said that was “not a concern”.<\/p>\n
He said he did not hold any concerns for those National MPs who would lose their jobs on current polling: “No.”<\/p>\n
Speaking on NewstalkZB on Monday, Luxon said he did not believe the rumours and described Bishop as a “great minister” and “good friend”.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Bishop says Luxon is doing a “wonderful job” as Prime Minister. Photo: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone Senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-152327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}