'A major distraction': Luxon calls urgent caucus meeting as leadership pressures spill into the open

Summarised by Centrist

Christopher Luxon has called National MPs to an urgent in-person caucus meeting in Wellington at 9.30am today as speculation over his leadership reaches a point where it can no longer be dismissed as background noise. 

“This issue needs to be resolved quickly,” Luxon said when announcing the meeting.

The admission signals that private conversations among MPs, reports of possible alternatives and public doubts about National’s direction have become a direct threat to the government’s authority.

Luxon later described disunity as “a major distraction”. He is right, but the more important question is why it has become such a distraction in the first place. 

National’s problem appears to be that the party has been unable to settle on a convincing answer to voters worried about the economy, cost pressures and whether its promised direction is firm enough.

The immediate trigger has been a challenging two weeks in which Luxon reopened arguments about the tax base while National continues to campaign on its no-new-taxes position. 

Read more at 1News

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