Labour MP Helen White says she “did really, really well” in her knife-edge victory in Mt Albert. Photo / George Heard
Labour MP Helen White says she “did really, really well” in her knife-edge victory in Mt Albert. Photo / George Heard
Labour MP Helen White says she “did really, really well” in her knife-edge victory in Mt Albert and the party “punched above [its] weight” despite getting only 106 more votes than her opponent in the traditionally red seat.
Former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern won the seat with a 21,246-vote majority over National opponent Melissa Lee. The seat has previously been held by Helen Clark and Michael Joseph Savage.
On Saturday night, Lee won 9891 votes, according to the preliminary count as of 5pm on Monday, against White’s 9997. National won the party vote in the electorate.
Labour has held the seat since its creation in 1946. Savage held the seat when it was part of the West Auckland electorate.
Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez March. Photo / Supplied
White then said the party vote had been changing “over time anyway”.
“We [Labour] have punched above our weight and I’m really proud of our team.”
As she took questions from media, she stopped and said, “Sorry, I’ve forgotten your name” to a reporter. Addressing Newshub reporter Amelia Wade, White then said: “Look at those results and you’ll see it was a really good campaign.”
She continued that her result was “pretty good if you look at what happened in Auckland and you look at some of my lovely colleagues who have been in these safe seats and have had the shock of their lives”.
The election delivered a blue sea of change in Auckland, with other typically Labour seats such as Mt Roskill flipping to National.
On the preliminary vote count, Mt Roskill has been won by National’s Carlos Cheung with 11,975 votes, 1249 ahead of Labour’s Michael Wood.
In Maungakiekie, another Labour-held Auckland seat, National’s Greg Fleming has a lead of more than 3600 votes over Labour incumbent Priyanca Radhakrishnan and will win the electorate.
In New Lynn, National’s Paulo Garcia holds a lead of more than 400 over incumbent Labour MP Deborah Russell.
In Te Atatū, Angee Nicholas continues to hold a 30-vote lead over Labour incumbent Phil Twyford.
Despite the blue wave, National lost Tāmaki for the first time since 1957. It has been held by the socially conservative Simon O’Connor since 2011.
He was beaten by Act deputy leader Brooke Van Velden to give Act a second electorate in the Auckland region alongside leader David Seymour’s Epsom seat.
Preliminary results show van Velden has 14,947 votes to O’Connor’s 10,372.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
