Christopher Luxon calls urgent meeting to resolve 'increased speculation' about leadership

He and his deputy, Nicola Willis, had called a press conference on Sunday to put pressure on Labour to sign up to its Budget responsibility rules, yet by his Monday morning media round Luxon was instead explaining that a fuel excise tax, bed tax, and bank tax would be on the table under a future National-led government.

On Monday night the NZ Herald reported National MPs had spent the day on the phones with one confirming they had fielded "several" phone calls about a potential leadership change.

"There's going to be change in the top job. It's just a question of who is going to be it", the NZ Herald reported the MP to have said.

Bishop, who was opening a pedestrian bridge at a railway station in Auckland alongside local MP Rima Nakhle on Tuesday morning, confirmed the party caucus would hold a meeting on Zoom later in the day, as earlier reported by RNZ, but he denied Luxon's leadership would be on the agenda.

"I'm not talking to you about the internal machinations of what time the Zoom appointments are, but there is a meeting tonight."

He said it wasn't unusual to hold a meeting during a recess week.

It is not known if the Tuesday Zoom meeting will still go ahead.

"Last week the PM apologised for remarks about Rotorua, and obviously there's been a bit over the MMP call, but we back our leader, and you know he's made his position clear in relation to the MMP referendum that we'll be taking that to the election. It's not going to be the focus of the campaign, as he says in his own words."

RNZ spoke to about 10 MPs on Monday night and received a mixture of responses.

Some said they wouldn't comment, while another said they couldn't comment, and others denied there were any leadership murmurings or that they knew about them.

One MP said the direct quotes in the reporting suggested there must be some truth to it, and at least one MP said it was nonsense.

Often tipped to be a leadership contender, Bishop has previously denied plotting a challenge, insisting late last year that Luxon remained the best person to be prime minister.

He dismissed the suggestion there were phone calls on Monday about the National party leadership, saying he talked to caucus members "all the time about a whole range of different things".

"Yesterday was a cabinet day, so you know clearly there were conversations between ministers and between MPs."

Bishop said it was "unhelpful" MPs were speaking to media and encouraged his colleagues not to.

"All I would say is you know people people shouldn't be talking to media like that."

Bishop said he was "getting on with the job", but then continued to answer questions from media about the leadership issue.

He said he hadn't spoken to Erica Stanford - also considered a contender - about the leadership, nor had he spoken to any of his colleagues.

Nakhle also backed Luxon saying he was "the man and the boss" and she backed him "150 percent".

On Saturday it was put to Luxon whether the confidence vote he called on his leadership back in April had resulted in a caucus split of 27 votes to 22.

He responded, "I have the support of my caucus - I'm very confident in my leadership."

On Tuesday Bishop told RNZ it wasn't worth speculating on the leadership vote, as only "two or three" people in the country know the results for certain.

"I don't know where that reporting came from. The caucus vote is secret, and I don't know what the result was," he said.

It was speculation about whether Luxon was up to the job and had the backing of his caucus to stay on as leader that prompted him to test his support with a vote in April.

At the time Luxon said that had put the rumour to bed and he had his caucus behind him.

Just four months later MPs appear to be musing about the prospect of changing leaders again.

While some spoken to by RNZ on Monday night said they supported Luxon, it wasn't unanimous.

There has been agitating since late last year from some MPs concerned Luxon's lack of personal popularity was also dragging the party vote down, and some MPs would lose their seats in Parliament if he didn't improve.

The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll in July had National down 2.1 points to 28.7 percent, its fourth consecutive decline in the Reid Research series and its weakest result since Luxon became leader in November 2021.

While Luxon's confidence vote win looked to have given him some reprieve, his performance in recent weeks has done little to convince concerned MPs they'll be safe come November 7.

Last Monday Luxon apologised to leaders from the Rotorua Business Chamber after he criticised them for having a "parent-child mentality" and relying on government too much.

He also faced questions about his foreign minister Winston Peters, and why he wasn't doing anything to reprimand him after labelling his comments about another MP, "racist".

Luxon then had to justify his use of a New Zealand Defence Force plane flying him home from a National Party fundraising dinner, and on the same day unemployment hit a record 11-year high.

On Thursday he was using talkback radio to make a captain's call to hold a referendum on MMP, which blindsided his own caucus.

While the National Party leader announced the list for the upcoming election on Saturday with little disappointment or upset - keeping senior MPs and new talent happy with high enough spots to make it back to Parliament - Luxon now faces his caucus on Wednesday morning after calling for an "urgent-in person" meeting.