Simon Bridges 'needs to be looking over his shoulder' after low Colmar Brunton poll rating - Labour's Kelvin Davis

April 17, 2018

Labour's deputy leader brushed off his party's drop in the poll but says National's leader should be concerned.

Labour's deputy leader Kelvin Davis has brushed aside Labour's recent poll drop, after the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll was released last night ,

Instead, Mr Davis - speaking on TVNZ1's Breakfast today - suggested National Party leader Simon Bridges should be "looking over his shoulder", after only gaining 10 per cent as preferred prime minister in the poll. 

"The government is still strong on 54 per cent, we're still higher than we were on election night," Mr Davis, the Acting Prime Minister said.

Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party fell five percentage points to 43 per cent in the poll, while National climbed one percentage point to 44 per cent.

The Greens are on six per cent, up one, NZ First are up two to five per cent, and the Maori Party are steady on one per cent.

If the poll results were repeated at the next election, they would give National 54 seats, Labour 52, the Greens eight and New Zealand First six.

"We thought the previous poll was a bit strange, so we're not surprised it came down," Mr Davis said. 

1 NEWS' political editor analyses the April 15 Colmar Brunton poll.

Mr Davis said there was usually an average of a 3 per cent bump with new leaders.

Mr Bridges jumped nine points to 10 per cent after taking the National leadership.

"The result I think should be worrying Simon Bridges is that he's debuted on 10 per cent, when Jacinda became Prime Minister she debuted on 26 per cent."

"He needs to be looking over his shoulder because we know Amy Adams and Judith Collins are probably rubbing their hands together with glee," Mr Davis said, in terms of other MPs who may be vying to hold leadership. 

Ms Ardern retains the lead as the most preferred prime minister with the support of 37 per cent of the 1007 people polled, but is down four percentage points since the previous poll in February. 

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