Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on Luxon surviving another confidence vote

There's suggestions heads will roll over Chris Luxon's latest leadership challenge, but not straight away. 

The Prime Minister's survived a confidence vote of his caucus - the second in four months. 

Luxon called an urgent meeting to address recent reports of discontent among National MPs, and he confirmed today that he had full backing from the party.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says it's clear Bishop and Stanford were angling for the top job - but they couldn't strike a deal. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry So for senior political correspondent I Berry.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, now I owe you how many bottles? Seven?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
No, I think it's four. It was double a quiz
last night. I think you owed me before. Okay, so
that'll be just four, Heather. Oh, certain, good times.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
So, as I said at the start of the show,
it felt like what happened is yesterday mid afternoon, Erica
had the numbers, or at least a challenger had the numbers,
and then it sort of swung around eight o'clock last night,
didn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, I wouldn't have said that. I wouldn't have said
they had the numbers. I think the caucus was divided
from the beginning, but you're right. Things seemed to shift
around as the day went on, and it was interesting
seeing Luxeen finally break the tension that was around Parliament
today and come to the podium and say that caucus

(00:49):
has one hundred percent support behind me. And of course
he had his detractors or potential detractors, Erica Stanford and
Chris Bishop standing behind him. Paul Goldsmith was right in
place as well, although he was very much horwiful. So
was Mark Mitchell. So you know, Interestingly, I wanted to

(01:10):
know was it put to a vote, and people that
left were leaving Wellington today to come back to their
home posts. A number of them did say they voted
for Chris Luckson, So whether Chris Lackson moved that vote
or somebody else, I think what's happened here Heaver, is

(01:32):
that he's read the Riot Act in this caucus and
said we want no leaks whatsoever about what went on
here today, about how this transpired. It should never have
been in the public arena in the first place, and
I think they've now finally adhered to him. So you're
not getting people.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
To talk, it sounds like. And what I keep hearing
is that basically the two contenders could not agree with
each other on who would be number two on the ticket.
Both of them wanted to be the leader. This is
Erica Stanford and Chris bish and because they could not
actually strike deals with each other, that was the end.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well you know that. I guess there's all sorts of
suppositions out there, but you know clearly they both wanted
the job, maybe one more than the other, and that
was Chris Bishop, because you know, he was certainly involved
in April.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
But Pink was doing the numbers for Eric of this
time well Pink.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Interestingly, he wouldn't say which way he voted, although he
did say prior to the meeting that he would be
voting for Chris Luxon. It'll be interesting to see what
Luckson does from here on in because some would say
that these people who were disloyal and in fact have
discredited the National Party so close to an election should

(02:50):
be dealt to. But I think if Luckson's wise, he
doesn't deal to them. He continues as normal as Helen
Clark once did when she was challenged and embraced her detractors,
and she was in a different position. Of course, she
wasn't the Prime minister. But I think that things will
go on pretty much as normal now. And Luxton, as

(03:12):
he said, the only thing he said to the media
the airport was that he's looking forward to the election campaign.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Barry, he needs to punish Pink. He needs to punish
Pink because getting that crew to stand there behind him,
including Erica with the bloody brass neck, after what she'd
just done in the last twenty four hours, to stand
there directly behind him and try to convince the New
Zealand public that they are all unified. No one's going
to believe.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Does that damage the National Party You've got certainly Erica Stamford,
who's regarded as a very good education minister. Yeah, I
don't think you can deal to her in that portfolio.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
So you deal to Chris Pink and you kind of
make him the full guy, even though he was only
doing her bidding potentially.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, well, you know, he's less important, if you like,
in his portfolio. Certainly Chris Bishop is very important in
his portfolios as well, and he's got a lot like
on fast track, so they've got a lot of work
to do between now and the election.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
On that, does Luxe and Strip Pink of Defense and
de motormount of Cabinet?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, well Pink would say he wasn't the numbers man
a number of people, no doubt to you as well
a number of people have said to me he was.
So I guess if Luxon wants a well, not a scapegoat,
but if he wants a scalp, then the obvious scalp

(04:29):
would be Chris Pink because he would be the easiest
scalp to get, given that the other two that were
in the running for the leadership are much more important.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
You cannot leave us unpunished, can you.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, no, I think they should just get on with
the campaign. You know it looked it certainly just unified
the party, and people tend to forget that it was
Chris Luxon who unified the party after three leaders in
very short order. So he has been a unifying force
and what he now doesn't want to do is create
the impress of even further division. There'll be divisions there,

(05:03):
but you know, he'll be hoping in time that he
can show that those divisions have healed. Whether he can
or not depends on the vote on November the seventh.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Okay, Barry listen, thanks very much, appreciate it. Barry so
pre senior political correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
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