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Chris Hipkins. Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
Chris Hipkins
Chris Hipkins set to replace Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand prime minister
Hipkins was the sole nominee to replace the outgoing PM.
CHRIS HIPKINS IS set to replace Jacinda Ardern as the prime minister of New Zealand.
The 44-year-old senior politician must be formally endorsed by the party’s caucus on Sunday to become the country’s 41st prime minister, after Ardern’s shock resignation on Thursday.
Hipkins, who is currently the country’s Education Minister, was the only nominee to put himself forward for the top position within New Zealand’s Labour Party.
Yesterday, Ardern announced she would resign from office in a matter of weeks.
The 42-year-old – who steered the country through natural disasters, the Covid pandemic, and its worst-ever terror attack – said she no longer had “enough in the tank”.
“I am human. We give as much as we can for as long as we can and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time,” she said at a meeting of members of her Labour Party earlier this week.
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