National overtakes Labour in 1News political poll, Māori Party holds balance of power

The National Party has pulled ahead of Labour in the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll.

National is on 39 percent, up 7 percentage points, ahead of Labour which is on 37 percent, down 3 points.

The Green Party is holding steady at 9 percent and ACT is down 3 points to 8 percent.

Both the Māori Party and New Zealand First are on 2 percent.

What this means in terms of the number of seats in Parliament is that it could be a tight race. National has 49 and ACT has 10, giving them 59 in total, and Labour has 47 and the Greens have 11, making 58 altogether.

Neither have enough for the magic 61 needed to form a government, but with the Māori Party having three seats, on these numbers it would decide who would be in power.

In terms of the preferred Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern is on 34 percent, down 1 point, National leader Christopher Luxon is up 8 points to 25 percent, ACT leader David Seymour is on 5 percent, and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is on 2 percent.

The latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll, released in February, showed support for Labour had increased - the party was comfortably in front on 44.3 percent, up 1.6 points.

National was on 31.3 percent, up 4.4 points, snatching support from their political partner ACT, which was on 8 percent, down 8 points.

The Greens also overtook ACT in this poll and were once again the third-largest party in Parliament on 9.6 percent, up 2.4 points.