Key and English elected

As expected, the National Caucus today elected, without opposition, John Key as its 11th Leader and Bill English as its 14th Deputy Leader (he was also the 10th Deputy Leader).

In theory John Key is only Leader of the parliamentary section until his leadership is confirmed by the Party Board at which point he becomes overall Party Leader. I suspect a conference call of the Board will happen this afternoon to rubber-stamp the decision.

Key has become Leader after only four years in Parliament – this would be a record for both Labour and National, but of course Don Brash became Leader in just 18 months. This contrasts with Keith Holyoake and John Marshall who were MPs for 25 and 26 years respectively before they became Leader.