Bridges says ‘I’m staying’ despite poll
National leader Simon Bridges has fended off suggestions he’s about to be rolled as National leader after a devastating poll on Monday night.
A Newshub/Reid Research poll had National crashing down to 30.6 per cent support, losing 12.7 points from the last poll.
Yesterday, Bridges told Newstalk ZB he was staying on as leader, despite the poll.
‘‘I’m the leader and I’m staying that way,’’ Bridges said.
He blamed the poor poll performance on the increased media attention received by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the lockdown.
‘‘We’ve had wall-to-wall coverage of the Government and the health aspects of Covid-19,’’ Bridges said.
‘‘But that’s not an election campaign’’.
Bridges said he’d be focusing on the economy, which would be the focus of the election campaign.
‘‘What we’re going to see is things turn from the health response to the economic and this election is going to be squarely about the economic’’ he said.
Bridges said the Government had no plan for jobs and economic growth. ‘‘I’m developing with my team exciting plans right now, ‘‘ he said.
He said he did not believe there were rumblings about his leadership.
‘‘If we believed those, there have been rumblings forever and I was going to be rolled every other week.’’
The poll put the Greens and NZ First at 5.5 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively, while ACT were at 1.8 per cent.
On these numbers Labour would have 72 seats in Parliament and could easily govern alone, well above a 61-seat majority.
National would have 39 MPs, with many who are in their current caucus of 55 losing their jobs.