{"id":389780,"date":"2026-04-21T03:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389780\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:12:07","slug":"embattled-new-zealand-prime-minister-survives-leadership-vote-and-blames-media-for-soap-opera-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/389780\/","title":{"rendered":"Embattled New Zealand prime minister survives leadership vote and blames media for \u2018soap opera\u2019 | New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand prime minister, Christopher Luxon<\/a>, has survived a tense leadership vote six months out from the election as he battles an ongoing slump in opinion polls.<\/p>\n

Luxon, who has served as prime minister since November 2023, said he had called for the vote at a caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

The meeting in Wellington ran for more than two hours, fuelling speculation that Luxon might be forced out amid poor polling<\/a> and leaks from MPs about alleged leadership challenges.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Luxon delivered a two-minute statement to declare the vote proved support for his leadership, but took no questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved a formal motion of confidence in my leadership,\u201d Luxon told reporters. \u201cThat motion was passed, confirming what I have been saying \u2013 I have the support of my caucus as their leader. Caucus has answered clearly and decisively. It has backed my leadership. That matter is now closed, and I won\u2019t be commenting further on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He condemned reporters for creating what he described as a \u201cmedia soap opera\u201d. New Zealand<\/a> will vote in a national election in November.<\/p>\n

Media outlet Stuff said MPs were refusing to say if Luxon won the confidence motion with unanimous support from caucus.<\/p>\n

Luxon said he welcomed the press holding him to account, \u201cbut if the media want to keep focusing on speculation and rumour, I am not going to engage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryday Kiwis will not be losing sleep over political sideshows here in Wellington. They\u2019ll be thinking about their mortgage, their kids\u2019 education, and the safety and security of their community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Luxon did not mention the flagging public support for him and the National party.<\/p>\n

In a poll released on Sunday, just 16% of New Zealanders listed Luxon as their preferred leader, which also showed that Luxon\u2019s right-wing coalition would have lost if an election were held last week.<\/p>\n

National has been trending downwards since it won 38% of the vote to win office in 2023.<\/p>\n

Concerns from the backbench about Luxon\u2019s performance had reached such a level that the National party whip, Stuart Smith, had felt obliged to raise the issue, and requested a meeting with Luxon, the New Zealand Herald reported<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

However, in what the Herald called a \u201crare and extraordinary\u201d rebuke, Luxon reportedly \u201cghosted\u201d Smith and didn\u2019t meet with him. Luxon disputed that a meeting was sought.<\/p>\n

In March, Luxon shook up his cabinet and re-election team in attempt to shore up his leadership and reverse flagging poll results.<\/p>\n

The centre-right National party leads a coalition government with ACT, a right wing party, and the populist New Zealand First party.<\/p>\n

The coalition had campaigned on promises to fix New Zealand\u2019s economy, which was battered by recession and stagnation after the Covid pandemic, but recovery has been slow.<\/p>\n

With Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand prime minister, Christopher Luxon, has survived a tense leadership vote six months out from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-389780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389780","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=389780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}