New poll puts Labour 20 points ahead | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Labour has surged to a 20-point lead in an opinion poll published today ? the second in less than a week showing it could govern alone if an election was held now.

The New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll put Labour on 50.1 per cent, with National dropping to 30.4 per cent

The poll follows a trend of growing support for the Government.

At the weekend, a Sunday Star Times-BRC poll gave Labour 48 per cent, with National down to 34 per cent.

Prime Minister Helen Clark is also gaining ground. Today's poll put her on 57.8 per cent support as preferred prime minister, with National's leader Don Brash far behind on 20.3 per cent.

National's support has crashed since Dr Brash's Orewa speech on race relations at the beginning of the year, which pushed his party ahead of Labour.

Now, the gap between the two is approaching the level that existed before Dr Brash took over the leadership late last year.

He said he took responsibility for the situation, but still talked about winning next year's general election.

"I am the leader and have to take responsibility," he said. "I intend to win the next election and everything that I do over the next four, five, six, seven, eight months, however long it is, will be focused on exactly that."

Miss Clark, in Laos for the Asean summit, said the poll trend was "very encouraging".

The Herald poll was taken after Labour's annual conference in mid-November, which gave the party good publicity, but it also covered the period of the John Tamihere affair and allegations that the SIS had spied on Maori political organisations.

Translated into seats in Parliament, it means Labour would hold 62 seats in the 120-member Parliament, with the rest shared between National and the minor parties.

Labour would not need a coalition partner, or a party committed to supporting it on confidence votes.

The poll showed little change in the fortunes of the minor parties. NZ First was the best of the bunch on 5.7 per cent, with the Greens on 5.4 per cent, Act 2.5 per cent, United Future 2.3 per cent, the Maori Party 1.9 per cent and the Progressives 0.3 per cent.

It showed Act is still in deep trouble, because it does not hold an electorate seat and has to reach the 5 per cent threshold to keep any MPs in Parliament at the next election.