Photo: RNZNew Zealand First has climbed into third place in the latest RNZ poll, recording its strongest result in the Reid Research series in more than eight years. The RNZ-Reid Research poll, published Tuesday, also showed NZ First's Winston Peters leaping up the preferred prime minister ranks, closing the gap on the Labour and National leaders. Labour remained out in front on 35 percent, up 0.7 points since September, while National slipped to 31.9 percent, down 0.6. NZ First had the biggest bump in support, jumping 1.1 points, to hit 9.8 percent, its highest result with Reid Research since July 2017. This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 26, 2026 18:05 UTC