Education Minister and possible National Party leadership contender Erica Stanford admitted last week was “a bad week for the National Party and our caucus”.
“We’ve got to do better all of us together, pull together and remember our focus is on the New Zealand people,” Stanford said.
Stanford, speaking on her way into National’s caucus meeting was asked whether it was a bad week for the Prime Minister, a remark made by National deputy leader Nicola Willis on Newstalk ZB’s Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills show.
Stanford said she supported leader Christopher Luxon and speculation she was making a leadership tilt was “reporters interviewing their typewriters”.
While other MPs put on a brave face around party polling, Stanford said “of course not” when asked if she was happy with where the polls currently sat.
“We’ve got to respect what voters are telling us. They’re telling us they want us to be better. We want to be better. We have got a lot of hard work to do.
“At the moment I’m focusing on the major reform of our education [system],” she said.
Asked if Luxon needed to be better, Stanford said: “We all need to be better, but I support him 100%.”
“He’s doing a wonderful job,” she said.
She said the worst thing the party could do was “navel-gaze”. She said everyone in the party needed to be better.
Tama Potaka, another National minister, said he supported Christopher Luxon.
Asked if he wished to be the leader, he repeatedly said he had “no intention” to run for the top job.
But despite being asked several times, he didn’t rule out an eventual bid.
“It’s got nothing to do with me. I support the Prime Minister and I support this great party, the National Party.”
This morning’s meeting marks the first National caucus meeting at Parliament since Friday’s Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll showing National on a dire 28.4%.
Luxon has said repeatedly hosed down speculation he would quit over the poll.
Caucus meetings are held every Tuesday morning in sitting weeks.
MPs professed loyalty as they headed into caucus with Takanini MP Rima Nakhle bringing a sign reading “Luxon is awesome” to show off to media.
Speaking on Monday, Luxon said the poll results had been raised “in passing” during conversations with MPs over the weekend.
“I talk to my ministers and MPs all the time. In passing, I talked about the poll result. I talked about lots of other things,” Luxon said, stressing “it hasn’t been a major focus”.
He acknowledged the difficulty of last week, which included his now-infamous comment suggesting “any action” to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon would be a “good thing”.
The Prime Minister admitted the next day he had misspoken.
“There is no perfect week in politics,” Luxon said yesterday.
“Last week wasn’t the perfect week. It is not surprising I’d raise that or talk [about] that in passing. But only in passing.”
Luxon said he didn’t expect to hear about the poll results from his MPs at today’s meeting. He said the caucus was “unified”.
“We have got a lot on our caucus agenda. We talk about lots of different things.
“We have got a pretty straight-up culture inside our team that Nicola [Willis] and I have built since we took over as leaders and we talk about a range of different things.”
His focus was “building a great team and actually getting things delivered and done”.
“I am not a career politician. I am not going to have the perfect soundbite. I can reassure you, the one thing I can guarantee you going forward from here, there won’t be perfect soundbites either.
“That is because I am not a creature of this place and been here 20 years.”
Luxon said some previous Prime Ministers had been “fantastic communicators but don’t deliver”.
“New Zealanders are over that and they just want me to get on with the job, and that’s what I am doing.”
The Herald revealed on Friday that the National Party had sunk to its lowest point on this poll since Luxon took the leadership in late 2021.
The results showed National on 28.4%, only a few points higher than its disastrous 25.58% at the 2020 election.
If converted into seats in the House, National would lose 12 seats. At the election, it held 48 but would only get 36 on these poll results.
Luxon’s net favourability had fallen three points to -19%, which was behind Labour leader Chris Hipkins on -5%. Chris Bishop and Stanford, two National MPs often discussed as replacements for Luxon, were on -14% and -16% respectively.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.