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Heather du Plessis-Allan: Judith Collins is right to tell Simon Bridges to pull his head in

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Wed, 14 Apr 2021, 5:02pm

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Judith Collins is right to tell Simon Bridges to pull his head in

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Wed, 14 Apr 2021, 5:02pm

It’s doing the rounds that last night Judith Collins told Simon Bridges to pull his head in, and if that's true, then she’s right to do that - because they are hurting the party with their carry on.

And carry on there certainly is. Christopher Luxon has made no secret of the fact that he is intending to run for leader at some stage. Simon Bridges is making a game of withholding full support from Judith Collins - I’d wager he knows full well that when he says ‘I support Judith Collins at this time’, that we focus on the ‘at this time’ at the end of that sentence.

There are rumours going around that the pair of them might run on a leadership ticket together to topple her. Those rumours are not coming from nowhere if you read between the lines.

Now I think any fool can see Judith Collins cannot stay on as leader if National ever wants to win an election. Unfortunately, she made too many mistakes in the last campaign and her brand is probably beyond rescue.

She almost sounds like she has accepted that fate - her performance is often very flat.  

And frankly, Luxon is the moment the only promising candidate to take that role and run with it at the moment.

So, it is almost an inevitable at the moment – and things can change – but it’s almost an inevitable that Collins will topple to Luxon.

But, that does not mean that bridges and Luxon need to be this disruptive to that party.   

They are cementing the impression that National is a cot case, a party with smell of disarray this strongly about it will not be elected to government.

The best outcome for National is that Collins quietly hands over to Luxon at some stage, not during the disruption that the pair is causing.

So Collins is right to tell them to pull in their heads: for their own sakes if they want to be successful when they have a go at an election.

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