55/29

Oh dear. Fire up the BBQ's folks; the first Roy Morgan poll of the year is out, and it's VERY bad news for Labour and for Phil Goff - here's the gruesome details:

The latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows support for John Key’s National-led Government has risen to 59.5% (up 6%). Support for Prime Minister Key’s National Party is 55% (up 6.5%), the Maori Party 2.5% (unchanged), ACT NZ 1.5% (unchanged) with United Future 0.5% (down 0.5%).

Support for Opposition Parties has fallen to 40.5% (down 6%) with Labour Party 29% (down 6%), Greens 7%, (unchanged), New Zealand First 4.5% (up 1.5%) and Progressive Party 0% (down 0.5%).

If a National Election were held today the National Party would be returned to Government.

Oh dear. Bugger! Flippin' heck. Break out whatever expletive you like, but this is the worst possible start to election year for Phil Goff and his Labour Party comrades. Take out NZ First which on these figures is consigned to the political wasteland, and support for "opposition parties" falls to 36%. Yes, dear readers; little more than a third of New Zealanders polled by the Roy Morgan organisation want a Labour/Greens government. That is an absolute spanking for the left.

So where does Labour go from here. Will Annette King become a caretaker leader up until the election? Might they go for a completely new team; maybe Shane Jones or David Cunliffe and Maryan Street. Or does Labour suck it up, and accept that this election is quite likely to be unwinnable, and focus on stemming the bleeding and limiting the carnage.

Whatever Labour decides, it's not the news they wanted to start election year with. Oh dear; how sad; never mind; anyone for a BBQ?