1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll: Judith Collins slips further as Labour maintains big election lead

December 7, 2020

The first 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll since the election suggests things are far from rosy for the National Party or leader Judith Collins.

Judith Collins has plunged to her lowest preferred Prime Minister rating since becoming National party leader, the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll shows.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, meanwhile, continues to enjoy broad support and has risen to her second highest rating.

Collins has dropped to 12 per cent as preferred PM following National’s crushing election defeat, while Ardern has risen to 58 per cent.

The poll — the first since the election — also shows Labour is keeping hold of its strong lead over other parties.

Labour recorded 53 per cent support to National’s 25 per cent in today’s poll.

The November-December 2020 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll.

At the election in October, Labour received 50 per cent, National 25.6 per cent, the Green Party 7.9 per cent and ACT 7.6 per cent.

"There is a real conistency there from New Zealanders, which I think says they were supporting us as the Labour party on election night and are supporting us as a Government," Ardern said. 

"These are very heartening numbers."

Collins said National "lost a lot of support" and needed to win that back. 

"We've got through, muddled through with a much smaller team but we're in a better shape than we might have been.

"It's a really good opportunity for us to focus constantly on not only holding the Government to account but how we can promote some better, more positive views for the electorate."

Party support in today’s poll:
Labour Party:  53%
National Party:  25%
ACT:  8%
Green Party:  8%  
New Zealand First:  2%
Māori Party: 2%

Don’t know:  3%  
Refused:  5%

Preferred PM:
Jacinda Ardern:  58%  (up 3% since October 15 poll)
Judith Collins:  12%  (down 8%)
David Seymour:  4%  (up 1%)
Christopher Luxon: 2% (up 2%)
Winston Peters:  1%  (no change)
Sir John Key: 1%

Don’t know:  13%  
Refused:  2%

New National MP Christopher Luxon has registered at 2 per cent as preferred PM.

ACT leader David Seymour has received his highest rating at 4 per cent after his party’s performance strong at the election saw its number of MPs jump from one to ten.

After being named as Foreign Affairs Minister, Nanaia Mahuta has pulled in 0.8 per cent as preferred PM.

Ardern’s highest rating was at 63 per cent in May following the national Covid-19 lockdown.

Collins had rocketed in July from 2 per cent to 20 per cent after taking over as National leader — far ahead of former leaders Todd Muller, who got 13 per cent during his brief tenure, and Simon Bridges who only ever reached a high of 12 per cent.  However, since the election, Collins has dipped to 12 per cent.

Despite this, Collins’ approval rating has increased from +6 to +9, though this is still well down on her peak of +27 shortly after becoming leader. Forty-four per cent approved of the way she handled her job and 35 per cent disapproved — giving her the approval rating of +9 in the latest poll.

Collins said she was not worried at this point of her polling results. 

"I think it's fine, in the circumstances. Leaders of the Opposition always have quite a difficult time. My big focus is that it's not about me, it's about the team working well."

The groups of people who were more likely than average to approve of how Collins was handling her job were National and ACT supporters, men aged 35 and over, people with an annual household income of more than $150,000 and New Zealand Europeans.

In comparison, Todd Muller received +10 in June and Simon Bridges was on -40 in May.

Between November 28 and December 2, 2020, 1004 eligible voters were polled by landline (401) or mobile phone (603). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. For party support, percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers.

The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and mobile or landline access.

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