Almost half of National voters don’t want Prime Minister John Key to make a deal with Colin Craig’s Conservative Party to secure a third term in Government.
However, he hasn’t ruled out forming a coalition Government despite 60 percent of voters voicing their opposition against Mr Craig.
Rumours about a possible deal between the two parties have been circulating since Mr Craig acknowledged he won’t be able to win the safe National seat of East Coast Bays unless incumbent MP Murray McCully stands aside.
According to a Reid Research poll released today, 60.1 percent of voters said no when asked whether National should do a deal with Mr Craig.
However, 21.8 percent said yes to an alliance, and 18.1 percent said they didn’t know.
When it comes to National voters, 49.3 percent were against a deal, 31.1 percent said yes to it, and 19.6 percent were unsure.
The poll has a 3.6 percent margin of error.
But when asked point blank on The Nation whether he wanted to make a deal with Mr Craig, Mr Key left it unanswered.
“I truthfully can’t answer that question. I can say there’s merits for both sides of the argument,” he said.
“But I can’t be absolutely sure of a definitive answer – I don’t want to mislead you.”
The Prime Minister reiterated that it would be up to the party to decide if it was in a position where it needed to make a deal to win the September 20 election.
Mr Key conceded that decisions about political alliances were motivated by numbers, whether it was National or Labour.
He also seemed to defend some of Mr Craig’s more controversial views.
“He is a legitimate voice for some New Zealanders. It might be a position that’s quite a far way from me when it comes to social issues, but there are plenty of New Zealanders that would support it,” Mr Key said.
“It’s not where I’m at personally.”
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