Mr Fixit replaces Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister of New Zealand

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Chris Hepkins will become New Zealand’s next prime minister after ruling Labor MPs made their unanimous choice to replace outgoing leader Jacinda Ardern.

Education Secretary Hepkins will lead Labor into elections next October with his party trailing in opinion polls and facing a backlash against the country’s economic and pandemic management.

Despite lacking the star power of the charismatic Ardern, analysts said the quiet, casual efficiency Hipkins – whose role in leading the country’s Covid-19 response helped earn him the label ‘Mr Fixit’ – might suit a party that has lost touch with “central New Zealand”. “.

Hopkins, who entered Parliament House alongside long-time ally Ardern and embraced her before the vote took place, ran unchallenged for the party leadership. He will be sworn in as New Zealand’s 41st Prime Minister on Wednesday in what proved to be a smooth and speedy handover.

Carmel Cipollone was appointed Deputy Prime Minister. She will be the first Pacifica – a New Zealander of Pacific Island descent – to take on the role.

Hipkins immediately set an agenda to refocus his Labor government on “bread and butter issues” as the Ardern government was seen by the public as trying “to do too much, too quickly”.

“The world is facing a new challenge: the inflation pandemic,” he said of the country’s cost of living crisis.

Christopher Luxon, who leads the rival National Party, congratulated Hipkins on his sudden rise but wondered how far he would stray from Ardern’s agenda. “New leader, same story,” he said.

Hipkins entered Parliament in 2008, eleven years after he was arrested and escorted from his land to protest the education policies of the then state-led government, an event he credits with propelling him into politics.

The MP for Rimutaka, known in New Zealand political circles as “Sheppy”, was elevated to the premiership position due to Ardern’s abrupt resignation after she said she did not have the energy for another term as leader.

Daniel McLachlan, an academic at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Biology, said Hipkins had developed a reputation as a “high-profile” due to his tough baggage, including education and policing.

McClochlan said opinion polls in recent days – with both Labor and Ardern’s unpopularity dropping heading into the October election – had proven a shift to Hipkins, who was “the only candidate with a chance of turning Labour’s chances around” against the rival National Party, led by Luxon.

Hipkins praised Ardern’s “calm, stable and reassuring leadership” during some of the most challenging circumstances in the country’s history. “Nevertheless, we are a different people,” he said, drawing a line between himself and his predecessor.

McLachlan said Hepkins was unlikely to generate the same level of vitriol from opponents of Ardern’s New Zealand pandemic policies – which have risen to “diabolical” levels over the past year – despite his central role in the Covid-19 response. “He’s very prominent but he doesn’t live rent-free in the heads of hundreds of thousands of New Zealand protesters,” he said.

The New Zealand Greens, a traditional partner of the Labor Party, said in a statement that it looked forward to working with Hipkins.

“Chris will make an excellent Prime Minister, and we look forward to continuing our work together, for the rest of this term and the next,” said Green’s co-leader James Shaw.

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