{"id":18203,"date":"2026-08-12T05:13:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18203"},"modified":"2026-08-12T05:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:13:48","slug":"christopher-luxons-leadership-on-the-line-as-he-fronts-do-or-die-caucus-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18203","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon’s leadership on the line as he fronts do-or-die caucus meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christopher\u00a0Luxon’s leadership is on the line<\/a>\u00a0as he prepares to front a do-or-die meeting with his National Party caucus in Wellington on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon\u00a0called the urgent in-person meeting<\/a>\u00a0as speculation swirled he was losing his grip on the leadership.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It followed reporting by the\u00a0New Zealand Herald\u00a0<\/em>on Monday night that National MPs had spent the day on the phones, with one confirming they had fielded “several” calls about a potential leadership change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“There’s going to be change in the top job. It’s just a question of who is going to be it”, the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0reported the MP to have said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The three most likely contenders are deputy Nicola Willis, third-ranked Chris Bishop, and senior MP Erica Stanford – while Simeon Brown and Mark Mitchell could be considered for the deputy role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Willis and Bishop publicly supported Luxon on Tuesday, but when Stanford arrived at Wellington Airport she did not say a word to reporters – even when they directly asked her whether she backed her leader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Erica<\/div>
Erica Stanford arriving at Wellington Airport on Tuesday before the National Party caucus meeting.<\/p>\n

Screengrab<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon seeks to silence agitators – again<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Luxon did not take long to respond to murmurings of caucus disunity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Tuesday morning Bishop confirmed an online caucus meeting had been set for Tuesday evening, but stressed it was not unusual for that to happen during a recess week at Parliament. That meeting was later cancelled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By early afternoon, Luxon posted on social media that he was calling his caucus to Wellington during a recess week at Parliament for a 9.30am Wednesday meeting, saying there was clearly increased speculation about his leadership.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election,” he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The issue needed to be resolved quickly, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stepping off the plane in Wellington later in the day, Luxon refused to talk to reporters, only saying “talk to you tomorrow … take care team”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It is unclear whether Luxon will call a confidence vote on Wednesday, as he did just four months ago – the last time his leadership was under pressure with some of his caucus telling the media of flagging support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He ultimately survived that vote and drew a line under it, blaming a “media soap opera” for causing a stir.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ballot was secret, with only the scrutineers – junior whip Suze Redmayne and party president Sylvia Wood – privy to the votes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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An unconfirmed margin of 27-22 has since circulated, fuelling questions about whether he would have the numbers to survive this time around.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Chris<\/div>
On Tuesday morning Chris Bishop confirmed an online caucus meeting had been set for that evening, but it was later cancelled.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A shocker week<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Fresh rumblings about rolling Luxon followed a\u00a0week of poor headlines<\/a>\u00a0for the National leader – and a far longer stretch of dismal polling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon on Monday apologised to Rotorua Business Chamber leaders after he criticised them at an event on Friday for having a “parent-child mentality<\/a>” and relying on government too much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He also faced scrutiny about his\u00a0unwillingness to reprimand his Foreign Minister Winston Peters<\/a>, who had in Parliament told a Chinese-born MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to go back to his own country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon\u00a0labelled that racist<\/a>, and\u00a0said he had a word with Peters<\/a>\u00a0about it, but took no further action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Prime Minister then had to\u00a0justify using a Defence Force plane<\/a>\u00a0flying him home from a National Party fundraising dinner, the same day unemployment hit a record 11-year high.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, speaking on\u00a0Newstalk ZB<\/em>, he made an out of the blue captain’s call to hold a\u00a0referendum on MMP<\/a>\u00a0if he’s re-elected, which blindsided his own caucus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A slight bump in the Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll on Friday seems not to have won Luxon much repreive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The poll had National up 0.5 points to 31 percent and would\u00a0return the coalition to power by a slim margin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It followed multiple polls this year which had National bouncing around the high 20s to low 30s, unable to make ground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just last month the party was down 2.1 points in the\u00a0RNZ-Reid Research poll<\/a>\u00a0to 28.7 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Saturday Luxon released\u00a0National’s list for the upcoming election<\/a>\u00a0with little upset, keeping senior MPs and new talent happy with high enough spots to make it back to Parliament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During that press conference he declared he had the full backing of his caucus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Prime<\/div>
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Wellington Airport on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

SCREENSHOT \/ RNZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Most MPs pledge support for Luxon, Stanford stays silent<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Most MPs arriving in the capital on Tuesday night were quick to throw their support behind Luxon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But notably, Stanford did not say a word to gathered reporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked whether she had confidence in Luxon, Stanford did not reply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The party’s chief whip Stuart Smith and senior MP Gerry Brownlee also declined to say whether they backed their leader.<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher\u00a0Luxon’s leadership is on the line\u00a0as he prepares to front a do-or-die meeting with his National Party caucus in Wellington on Wednesday morning. Luxon\u00a0called the urgent in-person meeting\u00a0as speculation swirled he was losing his grip on the leadership. It followed reporting by the\u00a0New Zealand Herald\u00a0on Monday night that National MPs had spent the day on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18205,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18203\/revisions\/18205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}