{"id":566090,"date":"2026-08-11T21:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566090\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:24:17","slug":"what-happens-to-parties-that-change-pm-mid-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566090\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to parties that change PM mid-term"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Prime Minister Christopher Luxon prepares to face the National Party caucus<\/a> this morning, we look at the fate of parties who change the person at the top between elections.<\/p>\n

Some Prime Ministers resign by choice \u2013 others are forced out \u2013 but the country\u2019s recent political history shows many administrations fail to recover from swapping leaders mid-term.<\/p>\n

In 2023 Jacinda Ardern\u2019s surprise resignation would see Labour lose power later that year. In 2016 John Key\u2019s shock departure would later lead to National losing power.<\/p>\n

And in the 1980s the fourth Labour Government was severely punished by voters at the 1990 election after cycling through three Prime Ministers in just 13 months.<\/p>\n

January 2023<\/p>\n

Chris Hipkins replaced Jacinda Ardern<\/a> as Prime Minister after she resigned, declaring she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job justice.<\/p>\n

“To Neve, mum is looking forward to being there when you start school next year. To Clarke, let’s finally get married,” Ardern said in a decision that shocked her colleagues at a Labour Party retreat in Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n

Hipkins has remained as Labour leader since.<\/p>\n

\"Jacinda<\/p>\n

Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins in 2023. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

December 2016<\/p>\n

If Ardern\u2019s resignation was a surprise, John Key\u2019s decision to step aside came as a political bombshell. Key had been a vastly popular Prime Minister and appeared on track to comfortably win a third term in 2017.<\/p>\n

However he walked away from the top job at the end of 2016, saying his political success had come at the cost of spending time with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my wife Bronagh, there have been many nights and weekends spent alone, many occasions that were important to her that I simply could not attend,\u201d Key said on the day he quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter Stephie and my son Max have transitioned from teenagers to young adults while coping with an extraordinary level of intrusion and pressure because of their father\u2019s job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill English was elected to the top job unopposed. He would go on to lose the 2017 general election \u2013 despite National comfortably wining the party vote \u2013 as Winston Peters decided to go with Jacinda Ardern\u2019s Labour Party.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Key stepped back as Prime Minister in 2017. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

December 1997<\/p>\n

Jenny Shipley became the country\u2019s first Prime Minister by rolling Jim Bolger in an internal caucus challenge.<\/p>\n

But unlike Ardern and Key, Bolger had no intention of resigning until he returned from an overseas trip and was confronted with the fact he no longer had the numbers.<\/p>\n

Bolger would go down in history as the final PM to serve under the First Past the Post electoral system.<\/p>\n

Shipley was 45-years-old when she ascended to Prime Minister but led National to an election defeat by Labour\u2019s Helen Clark in 1999.<\/p>\n

September 1990<\/p>\n

Mike Moore replaced Geoffrey Palmer but his tenure would only last 59 days. <\/p>\n

The fourth Labour Government was facing a heavy election defeat and turned to Moore for leadership, after he convinced the caucus that he would help save more seats than if Palmer continued as leader.<\/p>\n

Palmer initially rebuffed Moore\u2019s challenge, declaring on September 3 1990: \u201cI want to make it absolutely clear to every New Zealander that I am not quitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

However within a day he had decided to resign, just eight weeks from the general election.<\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley in 1999. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

August 1989<\/p>\n

David Lange resigned dramatically as Prime Minister as he struggled with health problems and losing control of a divided Cabinet. His successor, Geoffrey Palmer, described his ascension as a \u201chospital pass\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lange had spent five years as the country\u2019s 32nd Prime Minister after leading Labour to victory in 1984.<\/p>\n

But by 1989 Palmer inherited a Labour Party divided by the pain of ‘Rogernomics\u2019 (Finance Minister Roger Douglas\u2019 neo-liberal economics) which was exacerbated by the 1987 worldwide share market crash.<\/p>\n

September 1974<\/p>\n

Norman Kirk had died in office from heart failure on August 31, 1974. Deputy Prime Minister Hugh Watt served briefly as the acting prime minister for several days, until the Labour caucus elected Bill Rowling as the country\u2019s new leader.<\/p>\n

February 1972<\/p>\n

Keith Holyoake resigned as Prime Minister of New Zealand after 12 years in office, handing the premiership to his deputy, Jack Marshall. National would go on to lose the November 1972 election to Norman Kirk’s Labour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Prime Minister Christopher Luxon prepares to face the National Party caucus this morning, we look at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11508,11507,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":["post-566090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-national-party","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566090","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=566090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}