Meet Mark Mitchell
PLUS: Who’s backing who
National’s caucus will meet today for the first time since Bill English announced his resignation as leader with at least four MPs now vying for support after Mark Mitchell’s late entry.
Mitchell, an MP since 2011, entered the contest yesterday to go up against Judith Collins, Amy Adams and Simon Bridges for the role which National’s 56 MPs will vote on next Tuesday.
The importance of the decision for caucus will be emphasised by last night’s 1 News Colmar Brunton poll which showed Labour’s support had climbed to 48 per cent while National’s had dropped to 43 per cent, down three points.
About three-quarters of that poll was done before English announced he was resigning a week ago.
Taken in the aftermath of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s successful visit to Northland for Waitangi Day, it also cemented Ardern in as the preferred Prime Minister, getting 41 per cent to English’s 20 per cent.
Much of Labour’s surge was at the cost of its coalition partner NZ First (down to 3 per cent) and support partner the Green Party (down to 5 per cent). However, the drop for National will concern MPs as they face the uncertainty of how voters will react to a new leader.
Mitchell has some ground to make up — his rivals have spent the past week rustling up support.
He said he expected the contest to be close but believed he had strong enough support to give him a chance and he was in it to win, not just to rise his own profile.
While the others have resisted saying who they would have on their front bench, Mitchell said he would want Steven Joyce to stay on in finance if he was leader.
Joyce has said he is considering his own options on the leadership but is yet to reveal his decision. That is expected to be tomorrow. Mitchell denied he had made a deal with Joyce and while he had spoken to Joyce, he had not told him he planned to say he wanted him in finance. Mitchell said he had a lot of respect for Joyce after taking part in National’s strategy team during the last election.
“My admiration for him grew, especially seeing what he had to deal with when the fiscal hole came up.”
He insisted Joyce’s claims of an $11.7 billion hole in Labour’s books was not fabricated: “That hole is still going to emerge.”
Mitchell announced his decision at the Orewa Surf Life Saving Club in his Rodney electorate.
The 49-year-old said that politically he was a pragmatist who believed in people having choice in their personal lives.
Mitchell’s rivals welcomed him to the competition, saying it was good for National’s MPs to have choices. Mitchell has a background as a police dog handler and armed offenders squad member before living in the Middle East for eight years as a security contractor. That role included hostage negotiations and accompanying scientists from the Hague gathering evidence for the war crimes trial of Saddam Hussein. Mitchell did not believe he had any skeletons in his closet, saying he would not have got into politics had that been the case.
Mitchell relied on that background to make his pitch to be leader, saying it had taught him how to build a tight team.
“The other thing is I’m not scared of taking on an opponent and that’s going to be critically important in taking this Government on.”
Mitchell has cordial relations with NZ First leader Winston Peters, which he said were courtesy of the Parliamentary Rugby Team.
But Mitchell took a swipe at Peters’ party, saying the current Government was developing into one in which “you’ve got 7 per cent that is starting to control 34 per cent [sic]”.
“Winston’s on notice that if I am successful in the leadership, then he’s in Government. I’m in Opposition. We’re going to hold them to account.”
Mitchell and his wife, Peggy, the widow of rally car driver Possum Bourne, have five children between them.