Politics

Jacinda Ardern hits 51% in preferred PM poll, Bridges on 5%

19:10 pm on 15 April 2019

Jacinda Ardern has hit 51 percent on the preferred prime minister rating in tonight's One News Colmar Brunton poll - her highest number ever.

Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

While Ms Ardern is up 7 percent to a new high, opposition leader Simon Bridges slipped down to 5 percent, a rating he shares with his National Party colleague Judith Collins.

Labour gained on the last Colmar Brunton poll, reaching 48 points - that's up 3 points on February's poll - while National has slipped two points to 40.

The Greens remained stable on 6 points while New Zealand First was up one, to 4 percentage points.

Sixty-one seats are needed to form a government, and on tonight's numbers Labour would hold 60 seats - which with the Greens' eight seats could make for a very healthy majority.

National would hold 51 seats, which would fall well short even with the ACT Party's one seat.

The poll of 1009 eligible voters was taken between 6 and 10 April and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.