Half Labour supporters unsure who would be best leader
Nearly half of Labour voters do not know or are unsure who is the best person to lead the Labour Party, a new poll shows.
Nearly half of Labour voters do not know or are unsure who is the best person to lead the Labour Party, a new poll shows.
Tonight's One News Colmar Brunton poll put support for current leader Phil Goff at 30 percent.
Leadership coup talk was sparked recently over Mr Goff's handling of the Darren Hughes saga. Mr Hughes is being investigated by police over a sexual complaint.
However the poll shows no strong contenders. Finance spokesman David Cunliffe scored 3 percent, deputy leader Annette King and Shane Jones both got 2 percent while David Parker and 15th-placed on the list Andrew Little scored 0.8 percent.
The poll found 54 percent didn't know or were unsure. Of Labour voters 48 percent felt that way.
Mr Goff was most popular with lower income voters.
The poll also asked about Mr Goff's performance as leader -- 44 percent said he was doing a good job (for Labour supporters the figure was 61 percent) and 45 percent did not.
Asked how well Mr Goff handled the Hughes affair 35 percent thought he had done well while 46 percent disagreed. He was criticised in the media for keeping Mr Hughes on in his spokesman roles until the allegation was made public and he did not tell the caucus or party president.
Of Labour supporters 48 percent felt he handled the incident well.
The majority -- 46 percent -- thought Mr Hughes should have resigned while 37 percent disagreed.
The poll will take the shine off the first tranche of results released last night which showed Mr Goff's ranking as preferred prime minister jump from 7 percent in the past two polls to 11 percent.
NZPA
Mon, 11 Apr 2011
Mon, 11 Apr 2011
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Half Labour supporters unsure who would be best leader
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