Analysis: Christopher Luxon will now be the PM who felt forced to move a confidence motion in his own leadership — and won it. That extraordinary fact will follow him now for as long as he remains National's leader.
No sitting prime minister in recent history has done this.
The closest modern parallel in the MMP era would be Jenny Shipley's 1997 challenge that led sitting PM Jim Bolger to resign before he would've been forced out by a vote.
Otherwise, tenured prime ministers have ridden out polling troubles, faced down internal disloyalty, and — more recently — bailed out of the top job on their own accord before their successors went on to lose elections.
Luxon did something different when he walked into a room of his own colleagues with no declared rival and no formal challenge and asked his subordinates (to use a term as a CEO would) to vote on whether they still wanted him.
After Sunday's shocker poll result and days of anonymous MP commentary, the National Party leader deployed a powerful tool in week one of a sitting block, three weeks after his caucus last met in person.
He conceded the briefings had done damage he could not absorb by ignoring them.
The only way to stop the bleeding was to force his MPs to sign their names, in secret, to his continued tenure. It worked — but it also changed what kind of prime minister he is.
As National slumps to a new low in the polls, senior MPs reassert they back their man. (Source: 1News)
Not everyone in the Beehive was convinced it was the right call.
NZ First's Winston Peters, whose experience of National Party leadership crises stretches back to Bolger and Shipley's National government, was blunt: "This is a very bad move.
"There are going to be consequences for that."
The ongoing speculation about Luxon's leadership of National has persisted through the past year and has now likely become a defining theme of his first term — if not his premiership if the National Party fails to return to government come November.
Christopher Luxon spoke to Breakfast’s Tova O'Brien about the latest numbers. (Source: Breakfast)
Closure not found
Luxon has seven months until the election and was at pains on Tuesday to draw a line under rumours about his leadership — even going as far as forcefully criticising the coverage written by the journalists standing directly in front of him.
"A free press is important in a democracy," he told them, before adding: "But if the media want to keep focusing on speculation and rumour, I am not going to engage."
The Prime Minister said: "Caucus has answered clearly and decisively. It has backed my leadership. That matter is now closed."
The results show if an election were to be held today, Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori would unseat the coalition. (Source: 1News)
A unified front presented by National members today and a solid vote in his favour suggest Luxon's position is now stronger than the past several days of rumours might have led to in the minds of some, yet it's still weaker than his statement claimed.
The most recent 1News Verian result will not be the last before November's election. There will be more, and some of them will likely be worse.
The MPs who have been handily briefing the gallery journalists in the past week have surely just been told in caucus to stop at once, but the jury is out on whether they will.
It also remains to be seen how this forceful attempt to quell his leadership troubles will play with National's position in the polls.
Christopher Luxon's senior colleagues stood behind him as he faced speculation that a horror poll result could spell the end for his time as Prime Minister. (Source: 1News)
But Christopher Luxon's greatest weakness has not found closure with this.
Even before the current crisis in the Middle East, an over-teased economic recovery was only just kicking into gear, with the coalition also struggling with health and other issues.
Now, the ongoing fuel crisis has brought increasing doubt about the future and added scrutiny to the National leader's ability to handle crises.
Sunday's poll showed economic pessimism was up 21 points, which increasingly sits beneath all of National's political problems like a sinkhole.
For a Government whose central pitch has been economic competence, those numbers cut through in a way that leadership troubles alone cannot.
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