Sir John Key confident after National's 'phenomenally good' party polling and backs Simon Bridges as leader

December 10, 2018

The former Prime Minister said he also was confident National will have possible coalition partners by the 2020 election.

Despite Simon Bridges' low preferred Prime Minister ratings, Sir John Key backs the National Party leader, asking "if he's doing everything so terribly wrong as some people want to say, then why is National polling 46 per cent?"

On TVNZ1's Q+A, the former Prime Minister told host Corin Dann that "Governments don't get elected on preferred Prime Minister, they get elected on the party vote numbers". 

The latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll showed Mr Bridges stagnating on seven per cent as preferred Prime Minister, while MP Judith Collins rose to a close six per cent.

"I'm a very loyal member of the National Party, I back Simon Bridges," Sir John said. 

"It's easy to throw stones at the leader of the Opposition like Simon, he's new in the job... but if he's doing everything so terribly wrong as some people want to say, then why is  National polling 46 per cent?

"It's a phenomenally good number."

But Sir John remained tight lipped on if Judith Collins, who was polling six per cent, would make a good leader. 

"Judith is doing a good job in Opposition and Judith was always a very effective Minister when I was in Government."

On coalition partners, Sir John said "gone are the days of this nostalgic view that there's a moral majority argument, because [Winston Peters] actually really ripped that card up". 

He said currently National did not have obvious coalition partners, but said he expected possibilities to emerge.

"We didn't see TOP coming at any particular point, there's clearly a Christian vote out there... there's a conservative-alternative view to Winston's perspective, there might even be an alternative Green view."

"Gaps get filled, and I'm pretty confident by the time we get to the election in 2020 there'll be partners for National."

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