Coalition talks: Chris Bishop runs out of clean shirts, borrows Luxon’s

As the final days of coalition talks dragged on for longer than the number of clean shirts Chris Bishop had packed for, incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stepped in to offer up something from his own wardrobe.

The Hutt South MP travelled to Auckland on Sunday with a spare shirt packed in case he had to stay on until Monday. He hadn’t bargained on staying until this morning.

When it became clear which way the travel plans were going, Bishop mentioned to Luxon he would have to buy a new shirt.

The pair were at Luxon’s house at the time and the National Party leader offered Bishop a spare shirt from his own wardrobe.

The pale blue shirt National Party Leader Christopher Luxon lent to Hutt South MP Chris Bishop.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon and MP Chris Bishop. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It’s a pale blue, button-down, single-cuffed shirt by Australian brand InStitchu.

“I actually really like it and it fits perfectly. Big fan of the Luxon blue shirt. It’s very good,” Bishop said.

Bishop wore it yesterday and today when he touched back down in Wellington just before midday.

Asked why he didn’t just buy a new shirt or do a load of laundry, Bishop said he had been focused on negotiating the new government.

“I think that’s more important than my desire to buy a new shirt.

“Secondly, I’ve been checking out of my hotel every morning as I’ve stayed at three different hotels over three different nights so the prospect of doing laundry was not a live possibility.”

Bishop was tossing up whether to wash the shirt and return it to Luxon or ask if he could keep it “as a souvenir of our magical mystery tour through Auckland hotels”.

It’s not the first time Bishop has been in need of a clean shirt during the lengthy coalition negotiations.

One morning last week he unsuccessfully tried to juggle a takeaway coffee while riding an e-scooter to a National Party meeting.

“For some reason I thought I could have a satchel across me, phone to work out where I was going, hold coffee and also drive the scooter. This didn’t go well,” Bishop said on Facebook.

“Fell off scooter on Wellesley St. Coffee everywhere, mainly down my front.”

Luxon said this afternoon that he and other party leaders are in the “final stages of our coalition conversations.

“We’ve agreed, fully, a policy programme. We’ve also agreed the processes and ways of working as a government and largely through ministerial positions,” he told reporters outside his Auckland home this afternoon.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.