Jacinda Ardern has reached 63% as preferred Prime Minister in the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll, lifting 21 percentage points.
It comes after the country spent weeks on lockdown as the Covid-19 pandemic swept around the world.
Meanwhile, National Party leader Simon Bridges sits at 5%.
The poll result heaps pressure on Simon Bridges with MPs set to decide if he stays as National leader.
Preferred PM
- Jacinda Ardern: 63% (up 21%)
- Simon Bridges: 5% (down 6%)
- Judith Collins: 3% (steady)
- Winston Peters: 1% (down 2%)
Labour leader Ms Ardern soared in the results as preferred Prime Minister - a record high for the 25 years of the 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll.
Ms Ardern’s previous high was 51% in April 15, 2019 – a month after the Christchurch terrorist attack.
National leader Mr Bridges dropped to 5%, Judith Collins was steady on 3% and NZ First leader Winston Peters dropped down 2 percentage points to 1%.
Mr Bridges faces a leadership battle tomorrow, with Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller officially throwing his hat in the ring yesterday in a bid to lead National. Today’s poll showed Mr Muller at 0.2% as preferred PM.
Approval ratings
Jacinda Ardern +76
Simon Bridges -40
The 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll also asked voters if they approved or disapproved of the way Jacinda Ardern and Simon Bridges handle their jobs.
Approval ratings were last asked in the 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll in October 2019. Approval ratings are calculated by taking away the disapproval percentage from the approval percentage
Jacinda Ardern rose to +76 from +33 last year, with 86% of those polled now approving of the way she was handling her job as Prime Minister, compared to 62% in October.
Ten per cent disapproved of the way Ms Ardern was handling her job, compared to 29% last year.
The groups of people who were more likely than average (86) to approve of how Ms Ardern was handling her job was Labour Party supporters, people with an annual household income of $30,001 to $70,000, and women aged 55 and over.
Those more likely than average (10%) to disapprove were National Party supporters (28%), people living in Taranaki or Manawatu-Wanganui (18%) and men aged over 55 (16%).
Simon Bridges’ approval rating at sat at -40, from -22 in October.
When asked if they approved or disapproved of the way Mr Bridges was handling his job as leader of the National Party, 22% of those polled approved and 63% disapproved. This is compared to 29% approving last October and 51% disapproving.
Those more likely than average to approve of how Mr Bridges was handling his job were National Party supporters, men aged 55 and over and Asian New Zealanders.
Those more likely than average to disapprove were Labour Party supporters, households with an annual income of more than $150,000, women aged 55 and over and New Zealand Europeans.
Between May 16 to 20, 2020, 1003 eligible voters were polled by landline (402) and mobile phone (601). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level.
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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