Little 16% behind

Hannah Fleming and Zaryd Wilson in the Taranaki Daily News report:

Labour’s Andrew Little is moving to New Plymouth in the next two weeks but he already has a mountain of work to do.

The man many are touting as the next Labour leader and prime minister will have to quickly roll up his sleeves after a significant poll of the New Plymouth electorate he covets this week indicated National’s lead in recent nationwide polls is being reflected in the city, previously the country’s most marginal electorate.

The election may be five months away, on November 26, but incumbent National MP Jonathan Young has the early jump on his main challenger, polling well ahead of the former Labour Party president in a Witt School of Journalism survey.

Mr Young secured a tiny 105-vote majority in 2008, but he won 41.56 per cent of support in Witt’s random telephone poll compared with Mr Little’s 25.33 per cen

The poll, which had a margin of error of 4.55 per cent, asked 820 voters to choose between Mr Young and Mr Little. Of that number 462 people responded.

New Plymouth is going to be one of the interesting seats. National won the party vote by 6,500 votes, so for Little to win, he will need to attract a chunk of National voters.