Senior National Party MP Chris Bishop has urged his own colleagues to stop briefing media against the leadership, even as he denied any challenge involving himself was afoot against Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Bishop, repeatedly named as a contender for the top job, was fronting media at the opening of a train station pedestrian overpass in Auckland and asked about the issue.
Media reports on the Prime Minister's future have swirled in the past 24 hours, with one anonymous MP reportedly telling media that change was a matter of when, not if.
It follows a bruising fortnight for Luxon, who has thus far weathered multiple, somewhat self-inflicted political controversies.
Speaking today, Bishop described his colleagues reportedly talking to journalists anonymously as "unhelpful and not what caucus members should be doing".
"I would say to them, don't do it," said Bishop, who is his party's third-highest ranked MP.
National Party leader adamant a proposed four-year parliamentary should include a review of our electoral system. (Source: 1News)
He confirmed rumours that National would hold a caucus meeting tonight by Zoom, but insisted it was routine rather than a crisis gathering.
"It's not an emergency caucus meeting. It is a regular caucus meeting in a recess week."
He refused to say what time the meeting would take place, telling media he was "not going to tell you about my Zoom diary" before joking that he could "rule out midnight".
But Bishop conceded the reporting was not coming from nowhere, saying it "indicates a couple of people who are prepared to talk to media are unhappy about it".
"I'm not going to deny that that the Herald has reported it. All I would say is, you know, people shouldn't be talking to media like that."
Asked directly whether conversations were happening within the National caucus about the leadership, he said: "I'm not going to comment today on media stories like that. I'm just here opening the overpass here at Te Mahia."
Prime Minister says, if re-elected, he’d have a referendum to test support for continuing the electoral system. (Source: 1News)
Luxon faces multiple controversies
In the past fortnight, the PM has apologised for remarks made to an audience of small business owners, launched his party's MMP referendum policy on talkback radio, and struggled to rein in his Foreign Minister over comments the PM himself called "racist".
Luxon himself conceded that the electoral reform announcement caught his own caucus off guard. He said yesterday he felt "sorry for my caucus colleagues" for having to suddenly answer questions on a referendum following an announcement on talkback.
Speaking to media today, Bishop was asked directly whether he and Education Minister Erica Stanford had discussed a leadership challenge. He replied: "No."
Stanford and Bishop — both on the party's liberal wing — have been speculated to be two of the likeliest leadership contenders in the event of Luxon's departure.
Labour accuses the Prime Minister of using the Defence Force as a "personal taxi service" for campaigning purposes. (Source: 1News)
Both have previously assidiously denied leadership ambitions.
Bishop repeatedly said he backed Luxon when pressed by media. "We back our leader, and you know he's made his position clear in relation to the MMP referendum," he said.
The NZ Herald reported last night that discontented National MPs spent yesterday hitting the phones to discuss a possible change, with one unnamed MP reportedly saying "there's going to be change", but it was a question of "who is going to be it".
Meanwhile Luxon was now reportedly being backed in calls by former prime minister Sir John Key amid leadership discontent, The Post reported this morning.
When asked specifically, Bishop said MPs hitting the phones was normal in a recess week.
"Of course people are talking on the phones," he said.
Rotorua Business Chamber president Paul Ingram told Breakfast the "parent-child" comparison didn't land in a room of resilient owners. (Source: Breakfast)
"I don't talk about calls that I have with my caucus colleagues. I talk to caucus members all the time about a whole range of different things.
"Yesterday was a Cabinet day, so clearly there were conversations between ministers and between MPs. But that's part and parcel of daily life when you're an MP and a minister."
Asked why his own name kept surfacing, Bishop turned it back on the media.
"Well, I don't know. You'd have to ask your own typewriters that, because you're the ones who keep writing the stories," he said.
At the same event, Takanini MP Rima Nakhle was asked whether she had confidence in the Prime Minister and replied: "150%. He's the boss."
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