Leighton Baker

Leighton Baker is a New Zealand businessman and leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand.

Electoral history

Baker has stood as a member of the Conservative Party in three elections. In the 2011 general election, he was 12th on the party list^[1] and stood in the Christchurch East electorate.^[2] The party received 2.65% of the party vote and Baker received 1.86% of the electorate vote, neither of which was enough for Baker or his party to secure a seat. Baker stood again for Christchurch East in the by-election in 2013, receiving 494 votes (3.6% of the total), coming fourth. In the 2014 general election, Baker again contested Christchurch East but was not ranked in the party list. This election was the best result both for the party and for Baker. The party received 3.97% of the party vote and Baker received 4.02% of his electorate's vote, but this was still not enough for the Conservative Party to enter parliament.

Prior to his involvement with the Conservative Party, Baker was involved with The Kiwi Party. In the 2008 election, he stood for the Kiwi Party in the Waimakariri electorate, coming sixth of seven candidates.^[3] The Kiwi Party only contested the 2008 general election, and like many of its members he moved to the Conservative Party for the 2011 election which had been founded that year.

Role as leader of Conservative Party

Baker was on the Board of the Conservative Party prior to March 2015, but resigned in that month, with then-leader and founder Colin Craig saying that Baker didn't want the commitment of board meetings.^[4] Craig resigned from the party in June 2015, and all but one of the party's Board members resigned that same month, with the last remaining Board member resigning in July 2015. By mid-November 2015, Baker had been elected by the party to be the party Board chair,^[5] though some media reports referred to him as the party spokesman.^[6][7] The party Board ran the party in place of a single leader from after Craig's resignation until 24 January 2017, when it announced Baker was the new party leader.^[8][9]

When the University of Auckland Debating Society organized a cross-party debate in March 2017, they withheld an invitation to the Conservatives when it decided to limit participation to parties which were, or had, been in Parliament. However Baker stated that despite thinking the move was unfair, he would not follow Colin Craig's footsteps by taking the matter to court.^[10]

On 9th June, Elliot Ikilei was announced as the Manurewa candidate and as the party's new Deputy Leader to contest the 2017 election.

Personal life

Leighton was born in Lower Hutt in 1966 or 1967.^[11] He attended a private school in Auckland but moved to North Canterbury in the early 1990s.^[12] He has worked on a sheep farm in Dargaville, and as a builder, and now runs a building company.^[9] He is married to his wife, Sue, and has four children.

References