Poll shows Labour support would be 13.5% higher without David Cunliffe as leader; Peters calls for Inquiry into KiwiRail's 'lemon' Aratere; Your view?

By Bernard Hickey

With 64 days left until the September 20 election, here's my daily round-up of the political and governmental news from in and around Wellington on Friday, July 18, including the latest poll showing Labour's support would be much higher without David Cunliffe as leader.

The Stuff/Ipsos poll published overnight showed support for Labour would be 13.5% higher if Cunliffe was not in charge.

That was not the 'Cunliffe effect' the party hoped for when he was selected last year.

The same poll showed support for Labour at 24.9%, up 1.7% from a month ago. A Roy Morgan poll released this week showed support for Labour at 23.5%, down 4.5% to its lowest level since November 2011.

"Privately, Labour and the Greens now acknowledge that it would take an unprecedented swing against National to force a change of government on September 20. Some Labour MPs were yesterday privately canvassing leadership options, even at this late stage," Fairfax's Vernon Small wrote.

"But they believe Labour would be even more severely punished by such an outward sign of panic," he said.

The poll found 1.7% of existing Labour supporters would drop their support, but it would gain 15.2% support from other parties and undecideds, a net gain of 13.6%. That would increase Labour's overall support to 38.5%.

The poll found that support for National would rise by a net 7.1% if John Key was no longer the National Leader, with 5.3% of National supporters leaving and 12.4% joining from other parties and undecideds.

The poll did not name alternative leaders and it assumed any new leader would be no less supported than the current leader.

'A sick and slow lemon'

Meanwhile, NZ First Leader Winston Peters called for a full Ministerial Inquiry into the Interislander ferries after KiwiRail revealed the extended Aratere's new smaller propellers had made it 15 minutes slower per crossing, forcing a rejig of its schedule.

"The ship coughed and wheezed its way to New Zealand when it was bought, and has been spluttering ever since," Peters said.

"Even after major surgery in Singapore it is still sick," Peters said.

New Zealand First will celebrate its 21st anniversary at its annual conference at the Alexandra Park raceway over the weekend.

(Updated with more details on Stuff/Ipsos poll)

I'll keep updating this through the day.

See all my previous election diaries here.

See the index for Interest.co.nz's special election policy comparison pages here.