Episode Details

National will struggle to show they are a unified caucus if Prime Minister Christopher Luxon survives a leadership challenge today, political commentator Bridget Morten says. 

“They can’t let this drag on any longer,” Morten told Ryan Bridge. 

She says that if Luxon were to survive, it’ll be difficult for them to demonstrate that this kind of speculation won’t plague them all the way through to Election Day. 

If National and Luxon were voted back into power on November 7, people would also question if he would survive a second term as leader. 

Asked if Luxon’s likely challenger Erica Stanford was too unknown this close to an election, Morten said there were “a lot of really experienced senior ministers who have spent a lot of time around politics and actually delivering”. 

“So I don't think you can say it's a completely unknown quantity. I think a lot of people actually know a lot about these different politicians and what they might look like as leaders.” 

Whether or not the leader changed, National’s MPs needed to stop talking about themselves and start talking about what voters wanted, or risk being a one-term government, Morten said. 

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