KEY POINTS:
National continued to top Labour, and the gap widened in the latest opinion poll, with Labour's popularity falling and National leader John Key's increasing.
Mr Key and Helen Clark were neck and neck in the preferred Prime Minister ratings.
National was unchanged from the last One News-Colmar Brunton poll a month ago on 49 per cent but Labour was down 2 points to 37 per cent.
The Green Party lifted 1 to 6 per cent, The Maori Party was steady on 3 per cent, NZ First and Act were both down 1 to 2 and 1 per cent respectively.
As preferred Prime Minister, both Helen Clark and Mr Key recorded 33 per cent, the same as last month for the current PM, but Mr Key improved his position by two points. NZ First leader Winston Peters was on 3 per cent.
National appear to have weathered controversies over selling state-owned enterprises, scrapping reviews of doctors' fees and advocating private ownership of state school facilities.
The poll of 1000 eligible voters had a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.
- NZPA