Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has survived a caucus leadership vote and stays on as National Party leader. But the questions about his leadership style that brought the issue to a head are unlikely to simply melt away.
Flatlining or declining support, culminating in this week’s 1News-Verian poll showing the party seven points behind the Labour opposition, can partly be attributed to hard economic times and global uncertainty.
But it is Luxon’s consistently low preferred-prime-minister rating that underscores the connection between a government’s popularity and its leader’s day-to-day performance.
