Ardern’s resignation hands the 2023 election to National

Christopher Luxon speaks to media less than an hour before Jacinda Ardern's resignation announcement today. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Pattrick Smellie

Thu, 19 Jan 2023

Barring extraordinary incompetence by the National party, Jacinda Ardern has all but handed the election to a National-led government with her unexpected resignation this morning.I would write “shock” resignation, except that we have seen this before.In December 2016, facing a steady decline in his personal popularity, the then National party prime minister, John Key, announced he was quitting well ahead of the 2017 election.He'd said often enough that he knew the electorate "gets sick of you" eventually.For Ardern, th...

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