National’s leader contest heats up
The race for National Party leader is heating up with Mark Mitchell expected to make an announcement today and Steven Joyce still not ruling himself out of contention.
The official leadership candidates, so far, are senior National MPs Judith Collins, Amy Adams and Simon Bridges but, with another nine days until the caucus vote, the contenders could rise to five.
Mitchell, the former defence minister, police officer and hostage negotiator, has been in Australia since Thursday, supporting his daughter in a surf-lifesaving competition.
He was due back in the country today but it’s understood he flew home a day early and is now expected to confirm whether he’s in or out of the race.
His bid is believed to have gained some momentum of late so Mitchell will likely throw his hat in the ring.
While Mitchell might be seen as the underdog, he’s not a career politician like Collins, Adams and Bridges and would consider himself as having less to lose if he was unsuccessful.
Joyce, the former finance minister, is still working through his options and assessing the level of interest from his colleagues as to whether he should enter the race.
Regardless of whether it’s three, four, five or more candidates, the vote looks set to take place on February 27 and not before.
National’s 56 MPs seem to be enjoying having a real leadership race on their hands and for some of the party’s newer MPs who have had little to do with the contenders, they’re enjoying being in demand.
Collins said it had been 12 years since the caucus had a ‘‘real vote’’. Her message to National MPs was that she’s the ‘‘best person to secure the party vote’’.
‘‘I’ve also told them if they come with me they’ll have the most fun they’ve ever had.’’
Bridges says the party is at a ‘‘crossroads’’.
‘‘It’s the end of the John Key/ Bill English era.’’
If successful as leader, Bridges would reshuffle his MPs’ portfolios soon after but he stopped short of saying he had promised some of his colleagues particular jobs.
As for Adams, she said there would need to be some sort of reshuffle of responsibilities but she wouldn’t be rushing into that.
‘‘Every new leader has to take time to work through how to position their team . . . not everything will happen immediately.’’
Adams said Paula Bennett was doing a good job as deputy but once a leader was announced, the caucus would want to look at ‘‘geographical split’’ of National’s leadership team.