Stanford denies having leadership ambitions when refusing to express confidence in PM

Erica Stanford denies she was harbouring leadership ambitions this week when she repeatedly refused to express confidence in Christopher Luxon as leader.

The senior National MP told the Herald she previously said she had “no interest in standing for leader” and “nothing has changed since I made that statement”, though earlier this week she refused to rule out a leadership bid or give her backing to Luxon.

On Tuesday, she silently walked through Wellington Airport, ignoring reporters and refusing to say whether she had confidence in her leader.

National MPs were called by Luxon to the capital after a story from the Herald on Monday night revealed discontent within the party and that phone calls were occurring about a potential leadership change.

Prior to the urgent caucus meeting, MPs told the Herald they believed Stanford was a contender for the leadership, while an outsider linked to National said MP Chris Penk was engaging MPs to see whether Stanford had the numbers to roll Luxon.

Penk was sacked as minister on Wednesday when he was accused by the Prime Minister of launching a leadership challenge against him. Luxon won a confidence vote during the caucus gathering, his second such victory in four months.

There has been no response from Penk to the National leader saying he had launched a leadership challenge, but prior to the meeting, Penk said he supported Luxon and denied working the phones on behalf of Stanford.

Stanford, the Education Minister, has remained silent publicly since the caucus meeting was called but issued a statement today, through her ministerial office, saying the Prime Minister “continues to have my full support, as he always has”.

The statement did not address why she wouldn’t answer on Tuesday whether she had confidence in Luxon, whether she had intended to challenge for the leadership herself, and if she had been co-ordinating with Penk for him to do the numbers on her behalf.

After further questions from the Herald, Stanford’s office provided another statement saying she had said “consistently supported the Prime Minister and said so publicly on many occasions”, including as recently as Saturday.

“I made clear then that he had my unconditional support and that I had no interest in standing for leader. Nothing has changed since I made that statement,” Stanford said.

On Wednesday night, Chris Bishop, also suspected by some National MPs of pursuing the leadership, denied Penk had been working on his behalf.

“People don’t launch leadership challenges on behalf of anybody else. They launch challenges on behalf of themselves,” he told the Herald.

Bishop, the third-ranked National MP, said he had “absolutely not” asked Penk to do the numbers for him.

Asked by the Herald whether Penk had been working on behalf of Stanford, Bishop said there were “rumours flying around” but it was his understanding “there’s no suggestion he was doing the numbers for Erica Stanford or anything like that”.

“He was acting on his own account ... I’m very confident he was acting on his account,” Bishop said, though he couldn’t elaborate on what gave him that confidence.

Luxon, speaking today, was asked if he was confident Bishop and Stanford weren’t part of the leadership challenge and responded: “Yes”.

Asked how he was confident Penk was the only one involved in challenging his leadership, Luxon referred to his statement yesterday about how Penk had launched a leadership challenge.

“I dealt with it very quickly. We had a challenge emerge very quickly, we called a meeting, we dealt with it in house and we’re moving on.”

Speculation over Luxon’s leadership followed the National leader apologising for saying businesses were taking a “negative view” of economic conditions and needed to act like an “adult”, and his out-of-the-blue announcement that he wanted a referendum on the country’s electoral system next term.

After Luxon’s apology for his business comments, Stanford said his comments had caused “a lot of hurt and upset” and apologising was “necessary”.

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.