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New Zealand overwhelmingly embraced Jacinda Ardern’s Labour, leaving Judith Collins’ party in the wildernessJudith Collins had a spring in her step and a high-beam smile when she appeared for reporters the day after a New Zealand election that delivered a landslide victory to her opponent, Jacinda Ardern of Labour – the country’s most popular leader of modern times.“I’m feeling really good,” she said. “Woke...

New Zealanders give Labour more votes than at any other election in past five decadesFollow the results liveJacinda Ardern will govern New Zealand for a second term after the Labour party secured a historic landslide victory in the general election, attracting so many votes it could become the first party in decades to be able to govern alone. Ardern’s deft handling of the Covid-19...

PM tours shopping malls in Auckland, while Collins takes final chance to attack Ardern’s recordPolitical leaders in New Zealand put in a frantic final day on the campaign trail before Saturday’s vote, with Jacinda Ardern, the Labour leader and prime minister, making a whistle-stop tour of shopping malls in the largest city, Auckland, where she was greeted by hundreds of fans who clamoured for...

PM’s management of pandemic and ‘politics of kindness’ place her well ahead for Saturday’s voteIt’s been called the Covid election, with stability the order of the day.But it has turned into the weirdest general election campaign New Zealanders have ever seen, with most of the country desperate for it to be over and some semblance of normality to resume in a deeply abnormal year....

Judith Collins has the look of a defeated woman as Labour heads to likely victoryLong time no see. Jacinda Ardern left it late, but turned up at last night’s fourth and final debate of the election campaign as the prime minister. Ghostly versions of herself made weird, kind of shifty appearances in the previous three debates. God she was terrible, an anxious mess, uptight,...

Leader says she will resign if not re-elected but polls show Labour 15 points aheadJacinda Ardern has dominated the final leaders’ debate before New Zealand goes to the polls on Saturday, appearing confident and prime ministerial as she took on a subdued Judith Collins.In a surprise admission, Ardern said if she was not re-elected, she would resign as Labour leader. Continue reading...

In the election Judith Collins is up against one of the most popular PMs in recent times“I’ve been having an awfully fun time, can you tell?” Judith Collins, the leader of New Zealand’s centre-right National party enthused, to a campaign trail meeting packed with her admirers outside the South Island city of Dunedin. “I can’t stop grinning.”It was true; she could not. Collins, the...

Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins both bring B-game to seemingly interminable showAre we there yet? Is it election day? Is it possible to bring the date forward a little bit from 17 October? Not by too much – things have to be put in place, pens secured to pieces of string and the like. How’s tomorrow?Election fatigue hit hard during Tuesday night’s leaders’ debate....

New Zealand and the United States both had leaders' debates this week, and some political junkies noticed a distinct difference in tone. In New Zealand, where the Labour leader and incumbent prime minister Jacinda Ardern faced off against National leader Judith Collins, the pair exchanged compliments in a debate described by Collins as 'robust and a win for politics'. Meanwhile, in America, president Donald...

Quickfire questions led to dope-smoking and Trump-admiring revelations from Jacinda Ardern and Judith CollinsJacinda Ardern admits cannabis use in heated New Zealand debateQueen Street! The main shopping drag in New Zealand’s biggest city, a valley that rolls down towards the harbour in downtown Auckland, is hanging in there, just, even in these stay-at-home Covid days, as someplace fun and weird and chaotic – rare...

Labour’s Covid policies and popularity means the opposition is effectively cornered when it comes to presenting a different choice to votersIts record on eliminating Covid-19 and bringing a second outbreak under control has drawn praise for New Zealand from around the world. Now, the centre-left Labour party, led by the wildly popular Jacinda Ardern, faces an election bolstered by their success in containing the...