The Prime Minister has told Newstalk ZB none of his
Cabinet colleagues have told him to reconsider his future,
saying “all of them” back him.
Christopher Luxon’s
comments came after speculation about his leadership
following a Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll had
National on 28.4 – down nearly 3 points from its poll
last month.
Labour was up at 34.4, while the Greens,
ACT, and Te Pati Māori were all up on 10.5, 7.5, and 3.2
respectively.
New Zealand First had taken a slight
drop to 9.7.
Those results would give the centre-Left
bloc 61 seats, enough to govern, while the coalition
government bloc would fall short on 59 seats.
Luxon
told Newstalk ZB he was ‘absolutely not’ considering
standing down and said he had the skills to lead the
National Party and the country.
“The only thing I am
considering is the future of our children and
grandchildren.”
He said the only polling he took note
of was National’s own internal polling, which was processed
in the United Kingdom.
“I would reassure you – if
there was a problem, I would be doing something about it.
But we are long way away from what we’ve seen published in a
TPU poll today.”
Luxon said he has “not thought about”
what polling level would be the threshold for him to step
down as prime minister.
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“I have the full support of my
team and my caucus.”
The poll came at the end of a
week where Luxon struggled
to communicate clearly on the Iran
conflict.
Speaking on NewstalkZB, he acknowledged
failings with his personal communication: “I’ve freely
admitted, I’m not a career politician. I’m not always going
to have the perfect most tidy soundbite like someone who’s
been there 20 years would do.”
Luxon said the media
had gotten carried away in its reaction to the public poll
over the course of the day.
“The whole world seems to
have got very exercised … the reason I’m going on your
show is to clarify to people, no, I’m not doing that
[considering my
future].”
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