Clark refuses to accept large poll gap

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Prime Minister Helen Clark says three separate polls at the weekend that show Labour trailing National by over 20 percent are "very extreme" and overstate the Opposition's lead.

A TV One Colmar Brunton poll last night had National on 55 percent with Labour lagging on 29 per cent support.

That followed Saturday's Fairfax Media poll by AC Nielsen showing National winning 54 percent of the party vote against Labour's 30 per cent.

The latest Roy Morgan poll also showed a large gap with National's support up two to 52.5 per cent while Labour dropped 0.5 to 31.5 per cent.

But Miss Clark today refused to accept the size of the gap recorded in the polls, which she said were "very extreme".

"I'm all over the country. I believe that the Labour heartland is in very good shape indeed," she said on NewstalkZB.

"Of course we're behind but to say we are behind by those sorts of figures I think is just wrong."

Miss Clark said two of the polls seemed to consistently overstate National's lead.

"The Fairfax poll and Colmar-Brunton have consistently been bad and the Roy Morgan poll seems to be taken of part of a broader consumer poll so not too much notice is taken of that."

She said she expected more people to swing back to Labour closer to the election once they contrasted its planned programme with National's "deafening policy vacuum".

Last night's TV One poll gave National more than enough seats to govern in its own right.

This poll had the Greens on 7 per cent support, the Maori Party 4.4 per cent, while New Zealand First had the backing of 3.2 per cent of voters, meaning it would be out of Parliament unless leader Winston Peters won Tauranga.

National would have 68 seats compared to Labour's 36 seats. The Maori Party would have six seats, the Greens nine seats, and - assuming their leaders held their seats - United Future, ACT and the Progressives would each have a seat.

National leader John Key also had a solid lead in the popularity stakes.

He was the preferred prime minister of 38 percent of voters, ahead of Miss Clark on 27 per cent. Mr Peters was the preferred prime minister of 4 per cent.

The TV One poll sampled 1000 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 per cent.

The Greens held the same rating of 7 per cent in Saturday's Fairfax and the latest Roy Morgan poll.

In the Fairfax poll, NZ First was on 3 per cent, the Maori Party 2 per cent, while ACT and United Future both attracted 1 per cent support.

In the Roy Morgan poll, NZ First was on 4 per cent support, the Maori Party had 2 per cent support, as did ACT, while United Future gained just 0.5 per cent backing.

- NZPA