Goff hopes to prove grim poll results are wrong

Labour leader Phil Goff (right) admits the party has been 'heavily distracted' by events such as MP Darren Hughes' resignation. Photo / Supplied

Labour leader Phil Goff says he remains hopeful of "confounding expectations" after a poll showed 78 per cent of voters overall and 55 per cent of Labour Party voters did not believe he could win the election.

The 3News Reid Research poll showed that only 15 per cent of voters believed Mr Goff could win and 37 per cent believed he should be rolled as leader, although views on who should replace him were split.

It follows Sunday's TV3 poll showing Labour on 27 per cent support - 30 points behind National on 57 per cent.

The low polling already has some MPs resigned to the possibility of losing their seats, and has increased criticism from Labour's usual allies and left-wing political observers.

The poll puts about seven of the current list MPs at risk of not returning, including rising stars such as Stuart Nash and Kelvin Davis, whom Mr Goff has cited as a new generation of Maori leader in the party.

Yesterday Mr Davis said he was "pretty positive" the polls would pick up.

"If not, that's politics isn't it? It's a three-year contract and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work. I've always been pretty pragmatic and you need to have a plan B. If it's not to be, it's not to be and I can always go back to teaching."

He was also hoping he could win the Te Tai Tokerau electorate and expected Maori voters to figure out he could have more influence than his rival Hone Harawira's "chest beating".

Yesterday Mr Goff said Labour had been "heavily distracted" but he believed National's polling would erode as the election neared and opposition grew to state asset sales.

"I think the effect of the rising cost of living, the economy having stalled and unemployment being high and rising will have a corrosive effect on this Government."

The polls followed upheaval for Labour over issues including Damien O'Connor's criticism of the party's list, Darren Hughes' resignation after a police complaint against him and leadership rumours.

At the weekend, Marae Investigates showed some Ratana elders speakingout against Labour for neglecting itsfollowers in the list rankings.

Left-wing commentator Chris Trotter yesterday wrote on his Bowalley Rd blog that he was "bitter" because Labour was "dragging the whole of the centre left to an historic defeat and the selfish bastards don't give a damn".

Mr Goff "didn't have the balls" to change the party and was now "electoral poison" because he had given in to the social liberals in the party. "For a moment there [voters] thought he was going to turn Labour away from its effete social liberalism and back towards the robust proletarianism of yesteryear."

Mr Trotter said it was Labour's lowest result since 1996, when the Alliance and NZ First polled about 30 per cent between them. TV3's poll results were regarded as the most accurate in the 2005 and 2008 elections.