My job is safe, Collins insists after poor poll

National leader Judith Collins has hit back following a damning political poll, saying she was getting positive feedback over National holding the Government to account on its “radical interpretations”.

National leader Judith Collins yesterday told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB that she didn’t believe the numbers in Sunday’s NewshubReid Research poll and that it contradicted positive feedback she was getting.

The poll, which had Jacinda Ardern at 48.1 per cent (up 4.5 percentage points) and Collins at 5.6 per cent (down 12.8 percentage points) in the preferred PM stakes, came after weeks of National accusing the Government of having a “separatism by stealth” agenda.

She said it was also the first poll to be run since the election “so it was normal for the opposition leader to take a fall months after an election”. The poll also had Labour at 52.7 per cent (up 2.7 percentage points from election night), and National at 27 per cent (up 1.4 percentage points).

“And we are just getting going on things — getting focussed on the things that matter,” Collins said of National.

Anecdotally people were telling her they thought National was doing the right thing and standing up to the Government, particularly on their “secret agenda and the radical interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi”, she said.

She also pointed to an increase in the number of people attending regional National party meetings and said they “really liked the fact that we are holding the Government to account”.

Collins was pleased to see there was a “little bit” of an increase in support for the National Party.

People were coming up to her and saying please make sure you stay, she said. “I am safe.”