A poll has support for National down and Labour up, but the Government is still retaining a strong lead over its main opposition.



The latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll showed support for the National-led Government down 4 percentage points to 53.5 percent. Support for the party itself was also down - by 4 points to 49 percent.



Labour Party support was up 8 points to 36 percent but the Greens were down 3.5 points to 6.5 percent.



ACT, of which former National leader Don Brash recently took leadership, was languishing on 1.5 percent, down half a point on the previous poll.



The Maori Party and New Zealand First got the same results - 2.5 percent (up 0.5 and down 0.5 respectively) and United Future was unchanged on 0.5 percent.



Under the poll confidence in the Government rose 0.5 points to 127, while 55 percent said New Zealand was 'heading in the right direction' (down 1.5 points) compared to 28 percent (down 2 points) that said the opposite.



The telephone poll surveyed 942 voters between May 16 and 29. It had a margin of error of 3.2 percent.



At the end of May, a One News Colmar Brunton poll put support for National at 52 percent, down from 54 a month before, while Labour remained unchanged on 34 percent.



A TV3 Baseline Consultancy poll around the same time showed National down from 57.5 percent to 53 percent, with Labour up from 27.1 percent to 32.8 percent.