Bennett to run Nats’ campaign

National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett will vacate her Upper Harbour seat next year, move to the party list and concentrate on running the 2020 election campaign.

Bennett was named as National’s 2020 campaign chair yesterday.

She told the Herald the decision to be list-only was not about making it easier to retire from politics and not force a byelection if National lost.

“There’s no concern from me about whether I’ll be in Parliament next time, and I plan on being the Deputy Prime Minister.”

She had been “really keen” for the campaign chair role, having run the party’s successful Northcote byelection campaign last year.

She would continue to represent Upper Harbour until the election, but moving to the list would free her of campaigning for that seat.

The seat is a safe one for National, with 54 per cent of voter support in 2014 and in 2017.

It would be an opportunity for renewal to bring a new MP into a safe seat, and Bennett expected a lot of local interest, though she would not be endorsing anyone in particular.

She would miss being an electorate MP, she said. “I love it . . . but you can’t do everything. This campaign is going to be one of the biggest I’ve been involved [in], and I reckon it needs everything I’ve got.”

National has traditionally had only a few senior MPs as list-only.

In 2017 they were Sir Bill English, who moved to the list in 2014, Steven Joyce (also the 2017 campaign chair), David Carter and Jian Yang.