Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - Why the Luxon leadership speculation will return

Christopher Luxon survived. Yesterday he walked into a National caucus meeting and called an unexpected confidence vote on his own leadership. He won it. The doubters didn’t put up. So for now, they’ve been told to shut up.

It’s the framing Luxon wants us to take away. And it’s not entirely wrong. It was a bold move. He called his detractors’ bluff, and they blinked. Stuff’s political editor Jenna Lynch put it best: “His doubters were told to put up or shut up. They didn’t put up anything. So for now they have to shut up.”

But the interesting question isn’t about Luxon surviving yesterday. It’s how long he goes before he has to do something like this again.