Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has pretty much ruled out doing anything to help Shane Jones win Northland to save NZ First from being dumped (unless they can turn around slumping party support), and has also ruled out helping Green MP Chloe Swarbrick in the Auckland Central electorate.
A Colmar Brunton poll shows that Jones is a way off the pace in Northland, getting less than half the support of both the National and Labour candidates.
In 2015 Labour helped Winston Peters win Northland in a by election, but he lost it in the 2017 general election.
1 News: Jacinda Ardern shuts down idea of deal with NZ First for Northland seat
A deal between New Zealand First and Labour for the Northland seat is not “on the table”, says Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, despite Shane Jones’ poor poll results over the weekend.
“The suggestion that we do a deal implies there’s been a conversation … it’s just not something that’s on the table for either parties,” Ms Ardern told TVNZ 1’s Breakfast.
“At this point, and as I’ve said many times before, we’re campaigning for Labour in that seat.”
She says Ms Prime has “consistently” had her full support.
“Our view is that we need to keep working really hard on that seat.
That’s a clear public signal that Labour won’t help NZ First there.
In response to the poll, Mr Jones told TVNZ 1’s Q+A he needed to get the “political jackhammer” out, with his message to Northlanders that if they wanted to get NZ First back into Parliament they should vote for him or the party.
Jones seems to have accepted the poll result and concedes he has an uphill battle. He is regarded as a poor campaigner and has not won several attempts to win an electorate. He stood in Whangarei last election, coming a close third just behind the Labour candidate but both were 11,000 votes behind National’s Shane Reti.
So with no help from Labour, at this stage things are looking grim for NZ First.
And Greens are not getting any help in Auckland Central.
Stuff: Jacinda Ardern doesn’t think Chlöe Swarbrick will win Auckland Central from National
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn’t think the Greens’ Chlöe Swarbrick will win the Auckland Central seat.
Ardern, who previously stood and lost twice in the seat against National’s Nikki Kaye, told RNZ this morning she thought a Swarbrick victory was unlikely.
“The idea that the candidate that would be polling third should suddenly catapult up I just don’t think is keeping in mind the voting habits of that particular seat,” Ardern said.
That suggests Labour have been polling there, I haven’t seen any public polling for Auckland Central.
With the Greens hovering around the 5 per cent threshold, there had been some speculation Labour would do a deal with the party to keep it in Parliament.
Swarbrick herself poured water on this, telling RNZ, “we haven’t sought out a deal”.
“If we’re going to win this we’re going to win it the old-fashioned way,” Swarbrick said.
Ardern reiterated there would be no deal.
“Our view of course is we take the running in seats very seriously, we want to make sure we give our Labour voters and supporters the choice to vote for their Labour candidate on the ground.”
So Labour are doing what makes sense, going all out for as many seats and as many party votes as they can get.
There’s a real chance they will be the first party under MMP to get a majority on their own.
If Greens survive I think Labour would still include them in Government but if Labour has a majority Greens would be weak and used by Labour.
So the election is shaping up to be Labour or Labour + Greens versus National + ACT.