Gap narrows between National and Labour in new poll

The two major parties have narrowed the gap between them, with National dropping to 29 points and Labour remaining the same on 27 percent.That's according to the latest 1News-Verian poll which has seen National topple from its result last week, 32 points.The Green Party is down one point to 15 and Te Pāti Māori is down to 0.1 points - their lowest ever result on the poll. However, they are pursuing a candidate-only campaign.The coalition partners are both up: ACT is up one point to 12 and New Zealand First is up two points to 10.Opportunity has fallen slightly to six points, down one point.On these numbers Labour would have 33 seats, the Greens 18, Te Pāti Māori would have four and Te Tai Tokerau Party would have one.That's a total of 56.Meanwhile National would have 34, ACT 15 and New Zealand First would pick up 12 seats - a total of 61.Opportunity would have eight seats and remains the power broker between the right and left blocs.Last week, the poll had National on 32, Labour on 27, the Greens on 16, ACT on 11, New Zealand First on eight percent and Te Pāti Māori on 0.7 percent - but they are running a candidate vote campaign.An overhang on either side could add extra seats in Parliament and alter the results.On the preferred prime minister rankings, Christopher Luxon is on 24 percent - up four points - while Chris Hipkins sits on 18, up one.Between October 15 and October 19 2026, 1003 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online using online panels (503). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1 percentage-points at the 95% percent confidence level. Party support percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers, except those less than 4.5%, which are reported to one decimal place. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel. Undecided voters, non-voters and those who refused to answer are excluded from the data on party support. The results are a snapshot in time of party support, and not a prediction.