National leader Christopher Luxon says he isn't worried "at all" about his party's wafer-thin poll advantage over Labour despite the Government facing months of its own ministerial failures amid a nationwide cost-of-living crisis.
Meanwhile, Labour MPs pointed to a turbulent few months to defend its poor poll showings on the same day that embattled minister Kiri Allan and former minister Michael Wood returned to Parliament.
It comes after last night's 1News Verian Poll, which showed a tight race between the left and right blocs, with National and ACT holding a wafer-thin advantage. The poll results showed the opposition parties being elected to Government with a one-seat majority.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins couldn't be drawn when asked whether he was disappointed about his stagnating preferred prime minister numbers.
In last night's poll, Luxon's preferred prime minister ranking ticked up two points from May to 20%, while the prime minister was down one point to 24%.
In March, shortly after Hipkins became PM, a 1News Verian Poll had shown the Labour leader with a 10-point advantage over Luxon in preferred prime minister polling.
Both major parties - National and Labour - saw a drop in their party vote support, with minor parties picking up the scraps. (Source: 1News)
"I don't get too obsessed about these things. Ultimately, people can form their own judgments on whether they think I'm doing a good job," he said. "That said, I acknowledge the last month or so hasn't been as tidy for the government as it should have been."
Labour's Māori caucus co-chairperson Willie Jackson admitted the Government had experienced the "worst couple of months" in its six-year term.
"We're not too dismayed with the recent poll. You know, it's very, very close," he said.
"Look, we've had probably the worst couple of months in our term, and we're all close. It's all margin-of-error stuff, so I think once we get some clean air, some fresh air, get our Minister of Justice back to work, I think we'll see a change."
Meanwhile, Labour's campaign chairwoman Megan Woods defended the poll showing and suggested the election would be "incredibly tight" and a "classic MMP drag race".
"Of course, voters are going to react to the period of time that we've been through. It's our job to get back to talking about the things they want to hear about."
National's campaign chairman Chris Bishop told media that the party was "cautiously optimistic" about last night's result.
"The Government's had a rough few months, but ultimately it's the culmination of a rough six years for them. They've been imprudent and incompetent at getting anything done."
When asked about Luxon's preferred PM polling, Bishop said the party's nationwide Back On Track tour had been successful in getting the opposition leader in front of more Kiwis.
"People are getting to know him," he said.
Party leader Christopher Luxon said the polls were a sign to him of "good progress".
"I think we've made tremendous progress. If you think about the last 18 months since I've taken over, with Nicola. We've done a tremendous job… I remember what many of you were writing 18 months ago, about our chances this election," he told reporters.
"The fact that we can form a government, and have been able to do so for some time now, is good progress.
"We have more to do, and we're focused on the one poll that matters on October 14th."
He said he was "not worried at all" about the latest poll.
Last month, an internal slide shown at National's annual party conference showed the party had set itself a "very stretch goal" of reaching 45% of the party vote.
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