National lacking traction
A poll taken by UMR the week after Todd Muller took over as National Party leader has shown no immediate change to the party’s fortunes while Muller debuted at 13 per cent as preferred Prime Minister.
The poll results had National on 30 per cent – just one per cent higher than the 29 per cent it scored in the last such UMR poll under Simon Bridges’ leadership at the end of April.
The poll had Labour still well ahead of National on 54 per cent, while NZ First was on 5 per cent and the Green Party on 4 per cent.
UMR is the polling company used by the Labour Party, but this poll was one of a regular series taken for its corporate clients, rather than Labour.
Muller came at significantly higher levels as preferred Prime Minister than Bridges had been on when he was rolled. His 13 per cent rating was the same as Bridges’ highest ever score in the UMR poll — but Bridges had dropped to 7 per cent by April as voters reacted to his response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Ardern was streets ahead and had 65 per cent support as Prime Minister.
However, Muller is still relatively unknown and many voters are likely still making up their minds about him.
The poll of 1211 voters was taken from May 26 to June 1 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 per cent.
It started on Muller’s Tuesday of Troubles: the day on which Muller and deputy Nikki Kaye ran into trouble over the dearth of Ma¯ori in high-ranked positions in their caucus reshuffle, and confusion over whether MP Paul Goldsmith was Ma¯ori.
The National Party will be disappointed by the result and hoping that it simply reflected the instability that surrounded the fractious leadership change.
Muller has spent the last week pushing for the Government to move to level 1 more quickly, and pointing to the differences of opinion on Covid-19 issues between the PM and NZ First leader Winston Peters.