Labour-Greens edge National in second poll; Winston positioned a kingmaker
First voter reaction since state-of-the-nation speeches.
National has dropped for the second 3News-Reid Research poll in a row.
In November, the party dropped 3.5% to 46.8%. A poll released this evening has National on 44.5%.
Labour is up just over 1% to 33.5%.
The Greens have nudged up from 10.2% to 12.4%, giving the Labour-Greens bloc a combined 45.9% - a similar result a January 22 Roy Morgan poll that also gave the parties an edge over National.
Kingmaker role for Winston
The 3News-Reid Research poll has NZ First rising from 4.2% to 5.7%, which would put leader Winston Peters in a potential kingmaker role. Prime Minister John Key recently indicated his party is now willing to consider working with NZ First. (Roy Morgan had NZ First on 4%, below the MMP threshold.)
However, there was one scenaio that would see National squeak back into power - if a Conservative candidate wins the new Auckland seat, and brings two MPs in on the list, and ACT and UnitedFuture hold their seats, National and its allies would have 61.
National's partners struggle
Tonight's poll shows National's coalition partners continuing to struggle.
ACT (who chose Jamie Whyte as its new leader earlier today) and UnitedFuture both registered zero percent; Colin Craig's Conservative Party was on 2.1% and the Maori Party on 1%.
The 3 News/Reid Research poll of 1000 people was taken between January 23-29 and has a margin of error of 3.1 - a period that took in John Key's "elite teacher strike force" state-of-the-nation speech and caught partial reaction David Cunliffe's "baby bonus" policy launch (January 27).
In the poll's preferred prime minister ratings, John Key was down 1.9% to 39%, while David Cunlffe was flat on 10.8%.
NBR Staff
Sun, 02 Feb 2014
Sun, 02 Feb 2014
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