Cup of tea won't save Act - poll

Act candidate John Banks and Prime Minister John Key have a cup of tea and a chat at the Urban Cafe in Parnell. Photo / David White.

The now infamous cup of tea may not be enough to save the Act Party from political oblivion, with the latest poll of Epsom voters showing Act candidate John Banks still well behind his National Party rival.

Prime Minister John Key's meeting with Mr Banks at a cafe last Friday was supposed to signal National's tacit support for Mr Banks as the electorate candidate of choice.

But Epsom voters seem to have ignored the message, with a One News Colmar Brunton poll tonight putting National's Paul Goldsmith on 41 per cent compared with Mr Banks on 30 per cent.

Labour's David Parker had 17 per cent the Green's David Hay had 11 per cent.

If the poll of 500 Epsom voters was repeated on election night, Act's 15 years in Parliament would come to an end.

The party failed to poll above the 5 per cent threshold needed to get into Parliament in the last two elections, and instead relied on Rodney Hide winning the Epsom electorate, with other MPs riding into Parliament on his coat-tails.

Mr Key said he was not interested in another cup of tea, but had sent a signal that he was not unhappy with strategic voting in the electorate.

"In the end it's up to Epsom voters to decide whether they want to vote strategically or not. If they do, then that's not something that we would object to in the slightest, but if they don't then that's entirely up to them as well.''

Mr Goldsmith said he was keen to be an MP but was relaxed about whether that was as a list or electorate MP.

A poll of voters nationally found only 29 per cent support for the arrangement in Epsom; 55 per cent opposed it and the rest were undecided.