New political poll: Chris Bishop joins preferred PM ranks; Greens, TPM lose chunk of support

Chris Bishop (right) and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon during a post-Cabinet press conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Senior National Minister Chris Bishop has joined the ranks of preferred Prime Minister in the latest 1News-Verian poll released on Monday night.

It comes after rumours of a leadership challenge for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who has defiantly rebuffed claims of a coup.

The latest poll shows Luxon remains the preferred PM at 23% (up two points).

Labour leader Chris Hipkins is up 3 points to 21%.

Meanwhile, Bishop is on 2%.

Party result: TPM crashes, right bloc hold court

The 1News-Verian poll of 1007 eligible voters was taken between November 29 and December 3.

It gives National its best result since April – up 2 percentage points to 36% – while Labour is up by 3 points to 35%.

This is Labour’s best result since April 2023.

The Act Party climbed 2 points to 10%, while New Zealand First remains steady on 9%.

The Green Party and Te Pāti Māori have both taken a hit. The Greens have dropped 4 points from 11% to 7%, the poll shows.

As 1News reports, Te Pāti Māori has dropped 2 points to its lowest result in five years, 1%.

This follows a turbulent time for the party, which came to a head with the expulsion of two of its MPs.

One of those ousted MPs, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, is set to be reinstated after taking the issue to court.

The poll is good news for the coalition Government. If an election was held today, National, Act and New Zealand First would have 67 seats, enough to form a Government.

Monday night’s result follows the last 1News-Verian poll in early October that predicted the coalition parties would edge out the three Opposition parties, while public approval ratings for Luxon and Hipkins dropped.

The most recent public poll, a Talbot Mills/Anacta poll conducted between November 1 and 10 for its corporate clients, had Labour jumping to 38% in the days after it released its capital gains tax policy.

National had also lifted from 29% to 33% in the poll. Talbot Mills/Anacta also does internal polling for Labour.

In an October poll, 1News-Verian had National at 34% with Labour trailing close behind at 32%.

The Green Party had reached 11% while NZ First and Act remained on 9% and 8% respectively. Te Pāti Māori was on 3%.

On those numbers, the governing parties would have 63 seats, while the left-wing bloc would have 60.

The October poll also suggested dips in fortune for Luxon and Hipkins as both major party leaders dropped in their approval ratings.

Luxon had an approval rating of 38%, 52% disapproved of his performance and 10% didn’t know or preferred not to say.

These figures give the PM a score of -14, his lowest approval rating as the country’s leader, according to the poll.

Slightly more people approved of Hipkins (42%) – his disapproval rate was 41% and 17% didn’t know or preferred not to say.

This gave Hipkins an overall score of +1 – his lowest approval score since the 2023 election, according to 1News.

At the time, Luxon said he was just focused on his job – “which is to make sure I deliver for the NZ people”.

“It’s not really about me, it’s about me making sure I lead a team that does the job for New Zealanders.”

Hipkins told 1News in October he didn’t “read much into” the rating, saying “being leader of the Opposition, you expect your ratings to take a bit of a hit”.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.