No gains for Labour in latest poll

Labour Party leader David Cunliffe. Photo / Richard Robinson

Labour's support has dropped in a further poll, down to 28 per cent in TVNZ's Colmar Brunton poll while leader David Cunliffe is back in single figures as preferred Prime Minister.

The poll on One News had Labour on 28 (down one) while National was at 52 per cent, up one point since the last poll a month ago and seemingly unaffected by a flurry of problems such as MP Claudette Hauiti's misspending on her Parliamentary charge card.

That would be enough for National to govern alone with 66 seats in Parliament. The centre-left bloc of Labour, the Green Party and internet Mana was well adrift, securing 52 seats between them.

The Green Party dropped two points down to 10 per cent, while internet Mana held steady at 2 per cent, enough to get three MPs into Parliament if Hone Harawira holds his Te Tai Tokerau electorate.

NZ First was at 4 per cent, just short of the 5 per cent threshold to get back into Parliament.

Mr Cunliffe hit just 8 per cent as preferred Prime Minister, down two points from the previous Colmar Brunton poll a month ago.

Last week Mr Cunliffe said he took responsibility for Labour's slide in the polls, a reflection of his series of gaffes and apologies for everything from taking a skiing holiday while Labour was plummeting in the polls and saying he was sorry for being a man while at a domestic violence conference.

Mr Key's popularity increased slightly over that time to 48 per cent.

The poll is similar to a string of others over the past fortnight, including last week's Herald DigiPoll which had Labour down four points to 26.5 per cent and National up 4.5 point to 55 per cent. The latest 3News Reid Research poll had Labour on 27 per cent and National on 49 per cent.