Full name: Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern.
Position: Prime minister of New Zealand.
Age: 37.
Party: Labour
Family life: Lives with her partner TV presenter Clarke Gayford. Has a cat.
Religion: Agnostic.
Political credentials: Ardern joined the Labour party at 17. She worked in Tony Blair’s cabinet office and was a staffer for former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark. Elected to parliament in 2008.
Campaigned on: Making tertiary education free, decriminalising abortion, cutting immigration and lifting children out of poverty.
What voters liked about her: Youthful, confident and credited with having the X-factor that was desperately needed to turn the Labour party into a real contender for power after nine years of a National government.
What they didn’t: Inexperienced and untested.
Potential problems: Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has said it would be “very difficult to build trust” with a Labour government in New Zealand, accusing the party of collaborating in a plot to destabilise the Australian government after it emerged that the Australian deputy prime minister held dual Australian/New Zealand citizenship.
Made international headlines when ... Ardern called out sexist questions – about any plans to have a baby – that emerged just hours after she became Labour leader. She said such treatment of women was “unacceptable”.
In her spare time: Likes to DJ.
Interestingly ... Was brought up as a Mormon but left the church over its anti-homosexual stance. Doesn’t drink coffee.
• This article was amended on 20 October 2017 to correct the spelling of Helen Clark’s surname from Clarke, as it appeared in an earlier version.
