Jacinda Ardern to be New Zealand's next prime minister after Labour coalition deal

Jacinda Ardern has said she is “privileged and humbled” to become New Zealand’s next prime minister 26 days after the country’s electorate cast their votes.

At an eagerly awaited press conference on Thursday, the kingmaker Winston Peters announced that his New Zealand First party would throw its support behind Ardern’s Labour party.

This will allow Labour to form a coalition government with NZ First, along with the backing of the Green party, which means Ardern, 37, becomes New Zealand’s third female prime minister.

Ardern, who also becomes New Zealand’s youngest prime minister for 150 years, said she was committed to forming a strong and durable government.

“This is an exciting day. We aspire to be a government for all New Zealanders and one that will seize the opportunity to build a fairer, better New Zealand.

“We will work hard to ensure New Zealand is once again a world leader, a country we can all be proud of. We said we could do this, we will do this.”

After an agonising day of waiting Peters announced he would support Labour because the global environment was undergoing rapid and seismic change, and he believed a Labour government was best-placed to handle the social and economic welfare of New Zealanders.

“For too many New Zealanders capitalism has not been their friend but their foe, ” Peters said, claiming vulnerable New Zealanders had been left behind while the political elite got richer.

“We believe capitalism must regain its human face, and that conviction deeply influenced our decision.”

“We had a choice for a modified status quo or for change … that’s why in the end we chose a coalition government with NZ First and the Labour party.”

Peters said neither of the leaders knew of his decision before he took the podium, and learned of his choice at the same time as New Zealand voters. Ardern said she “enjoyed the theatre” of the dramatic unveiling of the country’s change of government, while Bill English, the National party leader and outgoing prime minister, said he was unfazed and it was “a bit of a detail”.

English has called Ardern to congratulate her and has conceded defeat, but said with 44.4% of the vote and 56 seats in the 120-strong parliament – the largest single party – National would be the strongest opposition the country had ever seen.

Ardern has confirmed that NZ First’s nine MPs would have four cabinet roles and one junior role outside cabinet, although details of the portfolios would not be published till next week.

Ardern said Peters was considering whether to accept the role of deputy prime minister, which she had offered him.

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The Labour/NZ First coalition government will be a minority one, with a combined 55 seats, and will rely on a confidence and supply deal with the Green party’s eight MPs.

The Greens leader, James Shaw, said his delegates would vote on Thursday night on the agreement, which would give the party three ministerial roles and an under-secretarial position. It will be first time the Greens have been in government.

Shaw said he was “very confident” the deal would go ahead and dismissed the “mythology” that NZ First and the Greens hate each other, saying that while Peters is not easy to work with, he is “constructive”.

Ardern, he added, “is the boss – I’ll follow her lead.”

Peters said he had full confidence in Ardern and she had displayed “extraordinary talent” in the campaign and leading the Labour party.

“The biggest issue is we have heard and read many comments about poverty and the concertinaing of wealth in fewer and fewer hands,” said Peters.

“We should address that issue. We did it in past decades in our great history and we want to be a part of doing it again.”

Peters said regional development, addressing the infrastructure deficit and improving the lives of New Zealand’s most vulnerable people, would be priorities for the new government.

After the 23 September election, the sitting National party was left with 56 seats and Labour 46 – both short of the 61 needed to form a government in the 120-seat parliament. NZ First, which secured nine seats, held the balance of power.

Labour’s victory is an extraordinary comeback after changing leaders just two months before the general election. The party’s former leader Andrew Little handed the leadership to untested Ardern on 1 August after tanking in the polls.

Within weeks, Ardern was responsible for a surge of support for her party, increasing polling results by 19 points in just over a month.

Ardern’s stunning popularity was dismissed as “stardust” by English, but she went on to experience huge support from young voters and women and was credited with breathing life back into the New Zealand political scene.

Her personal popularity and the huge crowds she drew around the country was hailed “Jacindamania”, and she was compared to rock-star politicians such as Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau.

A Labour government has pledged to wipe out child poverty, make tertiary education free, reduce immigration by 20,000-30,000, decriminalise abortion, introduce a water tax and make all rivers swimmable within 10 years.