The Labour Government has collapsed, plummeting to half its vote from 2020, on the verge of losing some of its safest seats and being behind in most of the Māori seats.

At 9.45pm, Labour was on the ropes with National and Act in a strong position to form a government without NZ First.

With more than 40 per cent of the vote counted, Labour’s vote was a shade higher than 25 per cent, meaning half of the caucus is out of a job.

In Auckland, Labour was trailing in Mt Albert, Mt Roskill, Maungakiekie, New Lynn, Northcote, Te Atatū and Upper Harbour, and has all but lost Wellington Central - previously held by Grant Robertson - to the Greens’ Tamatha Paul.

Helen White, who lost to Chloe Swarbrick in Auckland Central in 2020, was behind in Mt Albert - which has been held by three Labour prime ministers Michael Joseph Savage, Helen Clark and Dame Jacinda Ardern. The seat has been held by Labour since it was created in 1946 and at the last election the party had a majority of almost 20,000 votes.

Former Labour leader and New Lynn MP David Cunliffe told TVNZ’s coverage there were “extraordinary shifts” in the “red wall” seats of West Auckland - Mt Roskill, Mt Albert, New Lynn and Te Atatū - and Labour was going six-one down in the Māori seats.

 “There is a real debate going to have to happen about Labour playing to the centre versus playing hard on some of its progressive policies and did it say enough about climate change,” Cunliffe said.

In the Māori seats, Te Pāti Māori were ahead in Hauraki-Waikato, Te Tai Hauāuru, Te Tai Tokerau, Waiāriki and Te Tai Tonga

Even when the first votes came in, some Labour supporters were down in the dumps at the party headquarters with a group heard saying, “I don’t want to look at it”, before heading straight to the bar.

When Labour’s Robertson, Ayesha Verrall, Barbara Edmonds and Ginny Andersen arrived at their party’s event, they headed for a conference room.

Verrall told the Herald she was thinking about her colleagues around the country who might not make it back to Parliament.

”I’m hoping for more of my colleagues to make it through, and seeing that that might not be the case in some parts of the country that’s pretty sad.”

She said she was particularly concerned about what might happen under a National-led government in the health system “and the early stage it’s in and its recovery from Covid”.

Asked what should have happened in the campaign, she said: “I’m sure there will be a lot of time for going into that.”

Labour would have to think about what lay underneath the mood for change, she said.

Former Labour candidate and Herald on Sunday columnist, Shane Te Pou, said party leader Chris Hipkins will have to resign after the “thrashing” that Labour received in the polls, saying discussions are already turning to the possibility of Carmel Sepuloni taking over as leader.

Former prime minister Sir John Key said: “In 2020, Jacinda delivered a result I didn’t think was possible under MMP. But, they’ve gone from that to losing half their caucus. It’s pretty brutal.”