consistently been below 30 percent<\/a> across at least eight polls this year.<\/p>\nAsked on Tuesday about the most recent result, deputy leader Nicola Willis initially brushed it off.<\/p>\n
“That’s one poll, and there’s lots of different polls,” she said.<\/p>\n
She went on to say she wanted National to get as many votes as possible to strengthen its position in a coalition.<\/p>\n
“I want to see a stronger result than that.”<\/p>\n
Erica Stanford said 28.7 percent was not good enough.<\/p>\n
![\"Erica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783130717_344_4JMKSV2_Urgent_debate_23_06_26_7_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Erica Stanford. (File photo)<\/p>\n
VNP\/Louis Collins<\/p>\n
“We have to work harder, we have to be better, we’ve got to tell New Zealanders about our positive message,” she said.<\/p>\n
Asked why National continued to poll below 30 percent, Stanford said that was a question for voters.<\/p>\n
“But from my perspective, I need to be better at communicating our message.”<\/p>\n
Backbenchers confident the tide will turn<\/p>\n
Previous National leaders have said it would be untenable to retain their roles with polling in the low thirties.<\/p>\n
But backbench MPs on their way into Parliament on Tuesday were confident the party would soon be on the up, and backed Luxon to stay on.<\/p>\n
“We’re working hard, the election’s a long way away, and we’re gonna grow that party vote, you watch,” said Northland MP Grant McCallum.<\/p>\n
Northcote MP Dan Bidois said the only poll that mattered was on 7 November, election day.<\/p>\n
“[Luxon is] the best person to be leading this country, and to be leading National through to the election and beyond, hopefully.”<\/p>\n
Maureen Pugh from West Coast-Tasman said it was tenable for Luxon to stay on “because he’s a good PM”.<\/p>\n
Takanini MP Rima Nakhle was “128 percent” sure National would return to government, and list MP Nancy Lu said her party “will definitely be re-elected”.<\/p>\n
Both were confident they would keep their seats on current polling.<\/p>\n
Carl Bates said Luxon had full support from caucus, and believed New Zealand valued having a Prime Minister who “knows what he’s doing”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior National MPs are not happy with another bleak poll result, saying the party must work harder. Last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-536135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536135","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=536135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}