In the first Newshub-Reid Research poll for 2022, Labour is still riding its pandemic popularity wave, while the tide is going out for Act, half of its supporters have sailed away – many of them back to a Luxon-led National party.
Labour is up 1.6 percentage points – to 44.3 per cent in the latest Newshub Reid-Research poll.
National has bounced back into the 30s, up 4.4 points to 31.3 per cent. But the biggest loser in this poll is the Act party, which has plummeted eight percentage points to 8 per cent.
Those voters appear to have returned to National, Labour and even the Greens – up 2.4 points to 9.6 per cent.
In the first Newshub Reid-Research poll with Botany MP Christopher Luxon at the helm, National’s new leader is resonating with voters on the right.
He’s the preferred Prime Minister with 17.8 per cent of respondents, up 15.3 percentage points from his results in Newshub’s last poll when Judith Collins was still leader.
Jacinda Ardern is still the strong favourite – 43.3 per cent of voters prefer her as Prime Minister, up 1.6 points.
Newshub’s political editor, Jenna Lynch, says: “Despite a shocker start to the year with the arrival of Omicron, the government is still riding its pandemic popularity wave.
The border announcement this week has likely saved Labour from what could have been a very different poll result.
“Christopher Luxon seems to have turned the Titanic around for National. Centre right voters are heading home from their fling with the Act party.”
