Mark Richardson 'disappointed' in National, but won't let his support waver

True blue National supporter Mark Richardson is "disappointed" with the party's performance after the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll showed support has plummeted.

On Monday, Richardson confessed he was "really disappointed" in his favoured political party.

"I'm still wearing blue today because I'll go down with the ship - that's what you do," he told his The AM Show co-hosts.

"But these are the ideals I believe in for a better New Zealand and the side who represents those ideals is failing badly - where are they?"

Public opinion of National's leader Judith Collins has dropped like a stone, just 28.2 percent think she's performing well, down a whopping 15 points since October 2020. Almost half of those polled (47.1 percent) thought Collins performed poorly, an increase of 10.2 points.

Richardson went on to say the current approach is failing the party - its "targeted" attacks aren't working, and it's time to just "shoot indiscriminately" and see what sticks.

"Whenever they have a targeted go at someone it doesn't work," said Richardson.

The National Party leader's focus of late has been doggedly claiming the Government is introducing Māori separatism by stealth.  

The Newshub-Reid Research Poll asked voters if they thought Labour was being separatist, and if they thought National was being divisive.

For Labour, 43.6 percent of respondents said no, they're not being separatist, while 38.7 percent said yes, they are. A further 17.7 percent said they didn't know.

When asked if National is being divisive, 44.5 percent said yes, 33.2 percent said no and 22.2 percent said they didn't know. 

Richardson maintained his support for the party, despite its stumbles - theorising Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's popularity is hard to compete against and suggesting the media is to blame.

"There is such sycophancy towards our leader - [National is] not just fighting the other guy, they're fighting the fourth estate."

But Newshub's poll wasn't great news for Ardern either - 18.2 percent of those polled think she is performing poorly, an increase of six points from the last poll.