National Party leader Judith Collins mentioned the pledge in three separate debate appearances. He also says he did a better job of shoring up the candidate vote than the party vote, which is true. While his own candidate vote dropped by about 4000 from 2017, the party vote for National took a 7500-vote hit. Likewise, the Labour Party vote had already begun to rise in 2017, jumping 5500 from the previous election. "I think a vote for Labour was a vote for stability, which is actually a very conservative way of voting.

Source: Stuff October 22, 2020 19:18 UTC