National Party leader Christopher Luxon has hit back at an advertisement from the Labour Party lashing out at him for meeting Kiwis at a pub in London.
The advertisement posted on social media by the New Zealand Labour Party took aim at Luxon meeting New Zealanders living in London ahead of the King's coronation.
On one side was a photo of Luxon taking a selfie at the pub captioned 'Working for himself', and on the other was a photo of Labour leader Chris Hipkins shaking hands with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. This was captioned 'Working for you'.
"While Prime Minister Hipkins was hard at work advancing the NZ/UK FTA and visiting our troops, Chris Luxon was campaigning for National and talking down New Zealand....yet again. It's clear where Luxon's priorities are," the advertisement said.
However, Luxon fired back, saying he meets New Zealanders every day to listen to them and share his plans for New Zealand - something he said Labour should be doing.
"Another day, and Labour has run an attack ad against me for meeting with Kiwis at a pub in London. They are so out of touch," Luxon posted on Facebook.
"After Labour's MIQ lottery, after years of wasteful spending, after slugging hardworking Kiwis with more taxes, and after the last few weeks of division and dysfunction focused on themselves, a cost of living crisis, a health crisis and plummeting school attendance, I think Labour needs to spend more time listening to Kiwis. And after October 14th they can do that in Opposition."
National MP Chris Bishop fired back in support of his leader too on Twitter.
"If Hipkins did a pub meet and greet in London the only people to turn up would be furious expat Kiwis who would lash him over the lottery of human misery that was MIQ," he tweeted.
The New Zealand general election is set to be held on Saturday October 14, 2023.