Labour leadership vote: Chris Hipkins to reveal whether heβs staying on
By: Thomas Coughlan and Adam Pearse
7 Nov, 2023 01:05 PM
Chris Hipkins has been endorsed as the Labour leader and will continue as party leader.
Kelvin Davis will not continue as the deputy leader and Carmel Sepuloni will take over in the position.
Labourβs caucus met in Upper Hutt today to discuss many topics including the partyβs leadership following a dismal 2023 election result.
The leadership vote was a secret ballot so he didnβt know whether there were any dissenting votes in the leadership vote. There were no other candidates for the leadership.
On the messages to the caucus on unity in Opposition, Hipkins said he felt he didnβt need to give that message and said it was obvious.
Hipkins said Davis had not stated he would retire from politics altogether, but had earlier told Hipkins that he wanted to step down from the role of deputy party leader.
Hipkins said it was his intention he would be Labour leader for the 2026 election campaign. He said he was confident he would be leader then.
He said Labour would have a βrefreshed policy platformβ going into the 2026 campaign.
βWe start effectively with a blank page ... we start again,β Hipkins said of Labourβs policies.
βWe need to take stock, we need to refresh. We start again with a blank page.β
He said there had been a brief conversation on tax at todayβs meeting but nothing specific.
Hipkins formerly ruled out a wealth tax under his leadership, but is indicating that could change in the run-up to 2026.
He didnβt believe tax was the issue that defined the election result. He wouldnβt answer whether ruling out a wealth or capital gains tax was a mistake, repeating that Labour started with a blank page.
Hipkins believed a lot of vote splitting occurred in the MΔori seats, which led to Te PΔti MΔori winning six of the seven MΔori electorates.
Hipkins nominated Sepuloni to be the next deputy leader of the party and she was unanimously supported by the caucus.
He didnβt agree that he was still leader because no one else wanted the job.
Sepuloni said Davis had indicated he wanted to step down and therefore there was no need for negotiations over the position.
She said Auckland was a problem for Labour, as evidenced by the election, so the party had to βthink broadlyβ about why it fell short in the city.
The deputy leader job was about relationships within caucus, the party and stakeholders, Sepuloni said.
The first part of Labourβs Opposition was reflecting on what it did right and what it did wrong over its six years in government and the election. It will also involve βvery vigorouslyβ holding the next government to account.
EARLIER
As MPs filed into their meeting room this morning, several said they were supporting Chris Hipkins ahead of the leadership vote.
Senior Labour MP David Parker refused to say whether he will endorse Hipkins but did rule out contesting the leadership.
βThe question of endorsement will come up, itβs a matter between me and the caucus,β he told reporters.
Phil Twyford, who won back Te AtatΕ« after special votes were counted, believed Hipkins had the βexperience and the skillsβ to lead Labour but wouldnβt say whether heβd support him as leader.
βThose are things we discuss in the caucus room, not outside.β
He did admit heβd be surprised if Hipkins wasnβt leader after todayβs vote.
Peeni Henare confirmed his support for Hipkins.
He also stated the party would officially request a recount of the result in his electorate of TΔmaki Makaurau, which he lost by just four votes to Te PΔti MΔoriβs Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
βFour votes is too close to call, so weβre going to ask for a recount.β
Education spokesperson Jan Tinetti was tight-lipped on who sheβd support, but did say Hipkins had been a good leader.
Finance spokesperson Grant Roberston was adamant in his backing of Hipkins and was absolutely sure Hipkins would be leader come the 2026 election.
Asked whether he expected any challengers, Robertson said the caucus was about to meet but, βno, Chris is our leaderβ.
Ginny Andersen, the former MP for Hutt South which neighbours Hipkinsβ Remutaka electorate, said Hipkins would always have her support and backed him to lead Labour in the next election if he wanted to.
βI think Chris is the right guy for the job and Iβm backing him.β
Neither Mt Albert MP Helen White nor former Rangitata MP Jo Luxton would reveal who they would support in the leadership vote. Health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall said leadership discussions were for caucus only.
Former Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene, Manurewa MP Arena Williams, Ikaroa-RΔwhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Christchurch East MP Reuben Davidson all said they would vote for Hipkins.
If Hipkins were to lose that vote, the caucus could try to elect another leader from its ranks, which would require two-thirds of MPs to agree on a candidate. Failing that, the question would trigger a leadership election using the partyβs electoral college system, which gives members and unions a vote.
On Friday, Hipkins said he was βstill in the fightβ and he has received the explicit backing of multiple MPs since the election result.
Soon after the election, the likes of Willie
Jackson and Megan Woods swung in behind Hipkins.
βWeβve gotta find out what Chippy wants to do, and hopefully he wants to stay,β
Jackson said ahead of Labourβs first post-election caucus last month.
The partyβs campaign chairwoman Megan Woods said she had βno doubtβ Hipkins would win the confidence vote.
That support has continued to build.
Andersen told TVNZβs Breakfast on Monday she was behind Hipkins β100 per centβ.
βI believe that Chris Hipkins is the best person to be leading us right now,β Andersen said.
Todayβs caucus meeting is not going to take place in the partyβs caucus room in Parliament. Instead, the party is decamping elsewhere in the Wellington region, where MPs can gather away from media who typically blockade the caucus room, turning even an innocent toilet break into an opportunity to gather insight on the partyβs deliberations.
Instead of a typical meeting, which lasts roughly a couple of hours, this meeting will last most of the day.
The meeting will be the first since Labour MPs met in the week following the election to discuss the result. That first caucus meeting had a tense moment when MPs discussed whether it would be appropriate for them to explicitly endorse a leader prior to the vote.
There had been rumblings of a challenge by senior MP and former interim leader David Parker. This was mounted mainly by Auckland-based MPs frustrated at the partyβs dire performance in the Super City this election, and other MPs frustrated at Hipkinsβ decision to rule out a wealth tax, which Parker had designed in his role as Revenue Minister.
Parker does not appear to have the numbers to mount a challenge, or even to stop Hipkins from clearing the threshold required to confirm he has the confidence of his caucus. He would need just 14 votes to block the confidence motion. Without the numbers, it seems unlikely Parker would even put his hat in the ring.
Most people spoken to by the Herald think Hipkins is still the only person for the job, and is the partyβs best bet for 2023. Others think the party needs to reckon with the fact that he led Labour to a historic defeat and Labourβs share of the party vote declined under Hipkinsβ leadership.
Labourβs caucus will continue to discuss the campaign and what went wrong. The partyβs remaining Auckland MPs are likely to be particularly vocal, given the scale of the partyβs defeat there.
The partyβs rather thin 2023 manifesto is also likely to be a topic of conversation, with some MPs frustrated Labour did not put more incisive policy on the table after Hipkinsβ 2020 pivot to the centre soon after he took the leadership.
The Labour leader will almost certainly survive a leadership vote today.
www.nzherald.co.nz
Really the best and probably only option for Labour at this point.
Hipkins needs to channel his concession speech from election night rather than the negative campaign previously and he will be better for it.