The challenge for the new leader and caucus

Well tomorrow the National Party caucus votes for a new leader. It’s been good to see a party can have a vigorous contest without the personal nastiness that we have often seen in Labour contests. It’s good that MPs are remembering that after this is over, they need to be a unified team.

There are two aspects to this. The first is that caucus needs to get behind the new leader, regardless of whether they were their first preference. The person selected tomorrow will be the leader going into the 2020 election, and the party has to build a strategy around that.

The other aspect is the new leader needs to make decisions around the shadow cabinet that will unify the caucus. All five candidates have shown they are credible strong MPs and they should all have senior roles on the front bench.