Christopher Luxon refuses to speak to media as he arrives in Wellington ahead of urgent leadership meeting

The Prime Minister Christopher Luxon refused to speak to reporters as he made his way through Wellington Airport ahead of an urgent caucus meeting on Wednesday.His grip on National's leadership has come under scrutiny again after a series of missteps and clashes with coalition partners, including calling for an MMP referendum.Caucus rumblings of rolling Luxon resurfaced in reporting by the New Zealand Herald on Monday evening, and by Tuesday afternoon Luxon had decided to call the urgent in-person meeting for Wednesday morning."It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election," he wrote.The issue needed to be resolved quickly, he said.Stepping off the plane in Wellington on Tuesday afternoon, Luxon told reporters, "talk to you tomorrow ... take care team".National MPs were mostly keeping quiet on the matter, and had cleared their diaries on Wednesday morning - including the party's deputy Nicola Willis and third-ranked MP Chris Bishop both cancelling interview slots scheduled with RNZ's Morning Report.Bishop, who is often tipped as a leadership contender, had two scheduled media events on Tuesday and faced questions about Luxon at both.National's Chris Bishop. (File photo)RNZ / Mark PapaliiHe threw his full support behind his leader and warned colleagues against leaking to media.Asked again about the leadership at the second event, Bishop told reporters there was no update."Mate, we were just down the road in South Auckland 90 minutes ago," he said.He then gave a running commentary about what had happened in those 90 minutes, including getting a coffee, preparing for his next speech and calling his wife.Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown was with Bishop at the second event, standing beside him as they both took questions. Brown was asked if he wanted Bishop to be Prime Minister."Now there's a tricky question," Brown responded, chuckling.Brown said Bishop was a "good bloke" but had a bit of competition for the National leadership, including from Defence Minister Chris Penk.Penk had also been at the event, but did not stick around for the standup.Brown said what he would really like was for the New Zealand public to choose the prime minister "instead of Winston Peters doing it."National's James Meager told RNZ said he "absolutely" had confidence in Luxon."The media can interview themselves all they like about that, but its not anything we're interested in."Meager suggested not trusting everything in the media, and referenced being quoted in the Herald in November "making claims about things about me that were entirely untrue, which have been repeated throughout the media despite the fact them not being true."It had been reported that Meager was canvassing support for Bishop to take over as leader."It's false, and I denied it," Meager said."I'm not really interested in people's views on speculation about any of that sort of stuff, because as far as I'm concerned, it's nonsense."He said he'd had no conversations with his fellow MPs about a change in leadership in recent days.Senior MP Todd McClay also said he was behind Luxon."He's doing a good job, he's an excellent Prime Minister, he has my one hundred percent support."Meanwhile Labour's deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni wouldn't speculate but said: "clearly they're not performing very well and there's unrest in the National party caucus - hence why they're meeting."Sepuloni said disunity or ruptures in the National party caucus was not an issue for Labour.ACT leader David Seymour said he enjoyed working with Luxon and speculation about his coalition partner's leadership was a matter for the National Party.