Clark likens poll to make-believe 

Believing in polls that put National at more than 50% support is like believing in fairies, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

A Fairfax Media-Nielsen poll over the weekend put National Party support on 52%, 18 points ahead of the Labour Party.

Clark told TVNZ that those numbers did not match her experience as she met people across the country.

"I would no more think that National's polling over 50% than I thought there were fairies at the bottom of the garden, that is not reality," Miss Clark said.

The poll had generally been unkind to Labour, Clark says.

National deputy leader Bill English told The Dominion Post on Saturday a win of 50%-plus was considered "unlikely", and history is on his side.

No party has won an election with more than 41.3% support under MMP.

Trailing behind National in the poll was Labour on 34%, Green Party on 5%, NZ First steady on 3%, Maori Party also on 3%, and ACT on 1%.

National leader John Key rated as preferred prime minister for 41% of those surveyed, well ahead of Helen Clark, on 30%.

The poll questioned 1130 people and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.