Jacinda Ardern has confirmed she will be on the campaign trail for the Hamilton West by-election.
It comes as her party seeks to reclaim the seat in the wake of the chaos that's engulfed the electorate following Gaurav Sharma's explosive resignation last month.
Speaking to Q+A this morning, the Prime Minister said Labour won't be holding anything back for the December 10 by-election.
"Hamilton West, you will see me there," she said.
"Just talking a little bit about some of the things we're up against will not change the energy we bring to that election - the support we have for our candidate and the fact that we will give it our all."
She repeated her assertion that the people of Hamilton West had not "been well-served by what's happened recently."
"Our job is to try and make sure that we earn people's votes regardless of that."
Observers have said Hamilton West will be a bellwether for next year's general election, with National-ACT and Labour-Green blocs currently neck and neck in publicly-available polls.
The PM confirmed she would visit the bellwether electorate in an interview with Q+A.
In June, Ardern faced criticism for missing a visit to the Tauranga by-election - a seat eventually won by National's Sam Uffindell. The PM said she couldn't make it due to scheduling conflicts.
"I was scheduled to [be there]," she said. "There were, unfortunately, a couple of things that arose during that period - totally out of everyone's control - that meant that I wasn't able to get there in the end."
At the time of the election, Ardern opined that it was unlikely for Labour's Jan Tinetti to win the seat due to its long history of being held by the National Party.
Following Tinetti's defeat, the list MP told SunLive that Covid-19, a visit to see Joe Biden, and the flu had left Ardern unable to make scheduled visits to Tauranga.
The race on in Hamilton West, a by-election that could prove indicative of what's to come ahead of an election year.
The PM told Q+A next year's general election would be a "classic MMP election", and she was confident her party could win.
"Labour has demonstrated its ability to win those classic MMP elections because we campaigned on things that matter to people," she said.
"We have the opportunity now to demonstrate that we've got the experience, we've managed a crisis and made progress.
"But also, in these times, when people are rightly worried about the economy - we have one of the strongest in the world, and I will campaign hard on that."
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