‘Angry’ with Ardern, ‘nervous’ about Luxon – poll

A new poll shows more people are ‘‘disappointed’’ and ‘‘angry’’ with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern than in 2020, though she makes more people feel ‘‘comfortable’’ and less ‘‘nervous’’ than National Party leader Christopher Luxon.

A Horizon Research survey of feelings about the two party leaders showed that of more than 1000 people polled 35% felt ‘‘disappointed’’ and 28% ‘‘angry’’ about Ardern.

The poll indicated public sentiment about Ardern had shifted since September 2020, when in the lead up to an election 14% felt ‘‘disappointed’’ and 11% ‘‘angry’’.

While Ardern also made fewer people feel ‘‘hopeful’’ in the latest poll, dropping from 46% to 20%, she made more people feel ‘‘proud’’, ‘‘comfortable’’ and ‘‘pleased’’ than her opponent.

Luxon, who has not previously featured in such Horizon polls, made 25% of those surveyed ‘‘hopeful’’. However, he made more ‘‘nervous’’, at 27% compared to Ardern at 19%, and was one percentage point lower than Ardern for those who said the leader made them ‘‘concerned’’, at 32%.

The poll of 1153 adults, who were able to choose multiple emotions felt for each leader, was taken between October 20 and 25 and had a maximum margin of error of 3.2%.

‘‘The results clearly show where these leaders need to put in some work. Ardern needs to acknowledge suffering that people have been subjected to, and it’s obvious she needs to provide a hopeful way forward,’’ said Horizon’s principal Graeme Colman.

Luxon was making a third of adults feel ‘‘concerned’’, Colman said, and ‘‘he needs to find out why he’s not making them comfortable’’.

Polling in recent months has shown Labour and National roughly neck-and-neck, indicating the 2023 election could be a close contest. Results of Horizon’s October poll, released on Monday, showed NZ First could hold a kingmaker position, if the election returned the survey’s results.

Labour, which will hold its annual conference this weekend, received unprecedented support at the 2020 election, claiming 50% of the vote.

But its party vote support, according to polling, has waned to prepandemic levels as the Government pushes through numerous reforms while battling rising inflation, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

National’s party vote polling overtook Labour’s in March, months after Luxon took the party’s leadership.

Luxon – a first-term MP and former chief executive of Air New Zealand – has provided National with relative stability after the party had two leadership changes in the run-up to the 2020 election.

In the Horizon poll, Luxon had on some measures outperformed former leader Judith Collins, who in a September 2020 poll made 25% of respondents feel ‘‘angry’’ and 26% ‘‘disgusted’’.

But the percentage of respondents who felt ‘‘concerned’’ was comparable, 32% to Collin’s 36%, and more felt ‘‘comfortable’’ about Collins, at 17% to Luxon’s 10%.

Ardern’s highest rating was for ‘‘disappointment’’, at 35%, which included 26% of people who said they voted Labour at the 2020 election.