Six Labour MPs flee sinking ship

Stuff reports:

Cabinet Ministers Poto Williams, David Clark, and Aupito William Sio will retire from politics at the 2023 election.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the resignations on Tuesday morning. Stuff reported last week Clark was expected to resign, and Ardern had forecast other ministers would be headed out the door in the coming year.

MPs Jamie Strange, Marja Lubeck, and Paul Eagle would also resign at the 2023 election. Eagle, the MP for Wellington electorate Rongotai, recently ran for the city’s mayoralty but was unsuccessful.

Clark will be a bit of a loss to Labour. He didn’t do well in health (but Little is making him look better every day) but was competent in other portfolios.

The real surprise is Jamie Strange as he is a first term electorate MP. I can’t recall the last time an electorate MP retired (as in voluntarily, not due to scandal) after one term, but he is honest about it:

Strange, speaking to Stuff about his resignation on Tuesday, said he was “better suited for government than opposition if you look at my personality type, so it was good timing for me coming into government”

That is an extraordinary thing to say, as it is all but an admission that he doesn’t not expect Labour to win.

No doubt he also looked at the result of the Hamilton West by-election and figured that he has a fair chance of losing his seat and is unlikely to be given a winnable list place.

This is probably not the last announcement of retirements. I expect at least one more, and you may also have some senior MPs go list only, so they can bail after the election without causing a by-election.