A political commentator and former MP isn't expecting Chris Hipkins to remain Labour leader for the long term, but the lack of a clear successor means he expects him to hang around for a while.
It comes after a lengthy Labour Caucus meeting on Tuesday, where Hipkins emerged alongside several of his MPs and told the media he still has a "bit of fight" in him.
Labour was thrashed in the election on Saturday, receiving just 26.9 percent of the vote compared to National's 38.95 percent.
The result meant several senior Labour MPs have been ousted from politics, including Nanaia Mahuta, Tāmati Coffey, Sarah Pallett, Michael Wood and Anna Lorck.
Former MP Peter Dunne expects more senior MPs could also be on the way out of politics in the coming months, as Labour sets about rebuilding in Opposition after six years in Government.
"It's not desirable they all go at once, but I think people like Grant Robertson, Willie Jackson, possibly David Parker and one or two others may over the next few months decide to pull up the stumps on their careers. They are all list MPs so they can go without causing a by-election," he said.
"More importantly, that would then allow Labour to begin the process of rebuilding by getting the next people in off its list of some of those MPs who were defeated on Saturday but have got careers ahead of them rather than pasts to look back on."
After a heavy defeat, questions immediately turned to whether Hipkins would remain as Labour leader.
After saying on Saturday he would take time to consider his future, Hipkins confirmed on Tuesday he would remain the leader and he had a "bit of fight" in him.
But Dunne doesn't expect 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 said.
"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."
The question then turns to who could take over from Hipkins and the options look limited currently.
There has been speculation Kieran McAnulty could be an option, but on Tuesday he said there was "not a chance" he would take the leadership should Hipkins stand down.
Dunne believes this is another reason why Hipkins will remain the leader in the short term as there is no clear successor.
"I think that's the big challenge arising out of Saturday. It's not clear immediately who that person might be. I think they probably need a few months in opposition and one or two people might start to emerge as stars," he said.
"I mean, people have talked about Carmel Sepuloni, they've talked about Kieran McAnulty, they've talked about one or two others of the up-and-comers. They need to be tested in Opposition and see how they perform and I think at that point, Hipkins may choose to step aside, but to sort of do it now, it just looks like panic and confusion and I think Labour would not recover from that in a long time."
Watch the full interview with Peter Dunne in the video above.
