‘I won’t quit as leader of National’
Collins vow, even if polls hit record lows
National leader Judith Collins has vowed to fight on as leader, saying she will never resign from the job. As speculation mounts of a bid by former leader Simon Bridges to return to the post, Collins said she would not step aside in the vein of former Labour leader Andrew Little, whose resignation led to Jacinda Ardern becoming leader.
Asked if she would ever resign as leader, Collins said she would not — not even if her party dipped below 20 per cent in the polls, a record low for any major party.
In a 2018 interview, when she was vying for the leadership in the wake of Bill English’s resignation, Collins said she would resign if her polling fell below 35 per cent.
Collins said then that caucus unity any new leader would get would depend on the polls.
National dropped to just 21 per cent in a Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll this month. National had also dropped back slightly in a Talbot Mills (formerly UMR) poll at the start of level 4, and Collins was under pressure over her handling of lockdowns.
“I don’t worry about things like polls because they go up and down, and most pollsters would refuse to poll during a level 4 lockdown,” Collins said.
Bridges arrived back at Parliament yesterday saying he has “no intention of seeking leadership” of the party but that it has to front up to its bad performance in the polls. Bridges is among the non-Auckland MPs arriving back in Wellington this week after limited numbers were allowed in during lockdown.
Bridges acknowledged there had been bad polls.
“I think National has to own those polls. I don’t think we should be overreacting to them.”
Bridges denied his allies were doing the numbers for him. MPs have told the NZ Herald that Bridges is the most likely person to take over from Collins this term — and a move could be made before the end of the year.
One of Collins’ allies, Maureen Pugh, also arrived back that morning, accusing media of “making up” leadership speculation. Asked if she thought Collins would resign, Pugh said “no, because I think the whole story has been made up by [media]. It’s not real.”