A National MP is understood to be considering a split from his party to form a new Christian conservative party.
The new party could help solve a long-standing problem for National - if it wants to retake Government, it'll need minor parties to help it get there.
The National Party could have found an ally from within its own ranks - Alfred Ngaro, a former pastor and current list MP for Te Atatu.
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A senior National Party source told Newshub Ngaro seems quite serious about standing for another party. The source said he'd go down "quite well with the party faithful in Botany".
That party could be the New Conservatives - the party that formed from remaining Conservatives after Colin Craig left the party. The New Conservatives told Newshub they will be meeting with Ngaro next week, but wouldn't confirm whether they would be discussing a move to the New Conservatives.
The last Newshub Reid research poll put National on 41.6 percent, the equivalent to 53 seats in Parliament. With one-seat Act National's only certain friend, a National Party bloc would get nowhere near the 61 seats needed to govern on current polling.
But a problem for any new party is reaching either the 5 percent threshold or winning an electorate seat - and there's one electorate seat with a question mark hovering over it.
There's currently no National Party MP in Botany, the seat held by Jami-Lee Ross after his messy public split from the party. One theory is National could strike a deal there, telling people to vote for Ngaro in Botany, just like they do for Act's David Seymour in Epsom.
That theory's unlikely to play out - Newshub understands National will not consider a deal in Botany under any circumstance.
Their thinking is the people here have been through enough already.
Newshub.
