English announcement at 1130

Media are reporting that Bill English is making an announcement at 11.30 am today, and it is expected to be that he is going to resign as National Party Leader.

UPDATE: Bill English has resigned, effective on 27 February. He will leave Parliament in March.

Very pleased for Bill English personally. He clearly could have remained Opposition Leader, but after 27 years in Parliament, its a good call for him and his family to step down.

It isn’t such good news for National. English had high favourability with the public, and is very well known. The new Opposition Leader should not underestimate the challenge ahead of them, especially against a first term Government.

It will be very interesting to see how many MPs stand for leader. Potentially there are six or seven who would be credible candidates, but I suspect not that many will stand.