Newshub's Patrick Gower says Chris Hipkins must remain Labour leader as the party has no other options to replace him.
It comes after Labour suffered a brutal defeat in the election and looks likely to lose dozens of seats in parliament. After the 2020 election, the Ardern-led party won a historic 65 seats; the preliminary results of the 2023 election show they look set to retain only 34.
Questions have now quickly turned to whether Hipkins would and should remain leader of the Labour Party.
Pundits were quick to throw around potential leadership candidates including Carmel Sepuloni, Kieran McAnulty, Peeni Henare and Barbara Edmonds but Gower isn't convinced.
"Chris Hipkins is probably going to have a good chance of staying on and I'll tell you why, a very simple political reason," Gower said as part of AM's daily panel.
"Labour ain't got nobody else. If there was somebody else, goodbye Hipkins, that's how politics works."
Former ACT Party press secretary Trish Sherson, who was appearing alongside Gower as part of the panel, agreed with Gower but added Labour's loss highlights a bigger issue.
"What I'm really interested in though is Labour post this crushing defeat," she said.
"I heard Hipkins on the way in here this morning on the radio and he was saying, 'Oh look, we need to take time and listen and reflect about why we got this terrible result', and I thought that time was over the last three years when they were in government."
She believes this Labour Government was the most "disconnected" from business she has seen.
"In my view, this government was the most disconnected from business that I had ever experienced. They were the most disconnected from Auckland and in fact, there was not one Cabinet minister I could point to who was comfortable in Auckland and had great relationships... so that's totally untenable for a government."
She believes this election result will show Labour why you don't ignore Aucklanders, farmers and businesses.
"I think it's interesting the Labour Party don't know why they faced that crushing defeat. I think if you ask most people around New Zealand, they have a pretty clear idea," she said.
"I think it's a great lesson, you ignore the engine room of New Zealand at your peril. You ignore farmers or you treat them poorly, you ignore business and you treat them poorly and you ignore Auckland at your peril."
Gower and Sherson aren't the only pundits to suggest Hipkins should stay on as leader. Former MP Peter Dunne expects Hipkins to stick around, claiming he's a party person and won't leave them in the "lurch".
"I think the last thing the Labour Party needs at the moment would be to go through a leadership issue. I think Hipkins is going to take his time," he told AM on Wednesday.
"It's not clear to me that he would choose to stay long-term, I suspect he won't, but he's such a party person, he's not going to leave them in the lurch.
"So I think he'll stick around until there is at least a reasonably clear successor in the wings and then I think he'll go quietly, but to go right now would just be chaos upon chaos."
Hipkins confirmed on Tuesday he would remain Labour leader saying he still has a "bit of fight" in him.
