{"id":314709,"date":"2026-03-05T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/314709\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T19:07:08","slug":"bombshell-poll-luxon-under-pressure-as-national-sinks-towards-2020-disaster-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/314709\/","title":{"rendered":"Bombshell poll: Luxon under pressure as National sinks towards 2020 disaster mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survived an embryonic coup from Senior Minister Chris Bishop at the end of last year<\/a>. The coup was stopped before it got off the ground. <\/p>\n

Bishop is scheduled to travel to India shortly, which means he will be absent from next Tuesday\u2019s caucus meeting. <\/p>\n

This poll will likely spark renewed leadership speculation, although Luxon supporters arguing the virtues of stability have not been hard to find. While there was no widespread appetite to roll Luxon, there is speculation that continued poor polling could see him resign. <\/p>\n

On Thursday night, several MPs and staff had seen the poll or claimed to have seen it. There was no desire to initiate a leadership challenge on that number, but MPs acknowledged that there would be scrutiny placed on Luxon after such a poor performance. <\/p>\n

\"SeniorSenior Minister Chris Bishop. Photo \/ Marika Khabazi, RNZ<\/p>\n

Speaking to Ryan Bridge TODAY this morning, Collins said the public shouldn\u2019t be \u201cspooked\u201d by the poll. She didn\u2019t believe National backbenchers had been.<\/p>\n

Collins, the former leader and a current minister, said it was a \u201ctough job\u201d being Prime Minister at a time like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole world is going through this really weird space at the moment. There aren\u2019t too many Prime Ministers or Presidents who aren\u2019t getting bashed around in polls. People like certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She believed it to be a \u201ctemporary thing\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a long way to go. We can start seeing the economy turn around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Luxon\u2019s Iran misspeak earlier this week, Collins said there was only so much that could be said in the early stages of such a conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really difficult when people want definitive answers on everything, but you just can\u2019t say it because of security reasons or because you\u2019re waiting for information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Goldsmith, the Justice Minister, told Ryan Bridge he hadn\u2019t seen the poll.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no secret; it has been a couple of reasonably tough weeks, but we are going to turn that around. No need to panic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Kiwis had faced years of tough economic times and New Zealanders were \u201cgrumpy\u201d. Goldsmith went on to blame Labour for that.<\/p>\n

The National MP believed things would swing back to National at the election when New Zealanders were faced with a choice between it and Labour. <\/p>\n

He gave his support to Luxon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won\u2019t be going anywhere. He is doing a very good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"National'sNational’s Judith Collins said it is a \u201ctough job\u201d being Prime Minister at a time like this. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Taxpayers\u2019 Union executive director Jordan Williams, appearing on Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB on Thursday, confirmed a poll was running on Friday and that politicians \u201cas a courtesy\u201d had been informed of the results. <\/p>\n

He said the poll would be \u201clikely to attract a little bit of attention\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that it\u2019s been a tough few weeks for the Government. This poll may or may not reflect that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MPs contacted by the Herald echoed these remarks, noting it had been a difficult few weeks for the party and they were expecting the polls to reflect those difficulties. <\/p>\n

Luxon has come under pressure this week for his handling of New Zealand\u2019s response to the United States and Israel\u2019s bombing of Iran. <\/p>\n

His Monday post-Cabinet press conference was criticised in the media and drew comparisons with former Labour MP Clare Curran\u2019s disastrous handling of parliamentary questions shortly before she resigned from the Ardern Government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luxon stumbled repeatedly when asked to explain the Government\u2019s position before claiming that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t be any clearer\u201d.<\/p>\n

He later admitted he\u2019d misspoken when he said \u201cany action\u201d to stop the Iranian regime would be \u201ca good thing\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survived an embryonic coup from Senior Minister Chris Bishop at the end of last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27341,21045,806,46299,8414,48803,113160,16427,32573,3556,111,43,139,69,2847,4762,44625,13027,21411,2887,1305,26818,35028,23368,21419,8238,4483,170827],"class_list":{"0":"post-314709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-27341","9":"tag-above","10":"tag-as","11":"tag-bombshell","12":"tag-couple","13":"tag-disaster","14":"tag-disastrous","15":"tag-luxon","16":"tag-mark","17":"tag-national","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-only","23":"tag-party","24":"tag-points","25":"tag-poll","26":"tag-pressure","27":"tag-release","28":"tag-show","29":"tag-sinks","30":"tag-taxpayers","31":"tag-tipped","32":"tag-towards","33":"tag-under","34":"tag-union","35":"tag-wipeout"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314709","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=314709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}