Leighton Baker
Leighton James Baker is a New Zealand political candidate and businessman. He was leader of the New Conservative Party from 2017 to 2020, and has contested every general election since 2008, initially for the Kiwi Party, without success. Baker joined the Conservative Party in 2011, shortly after its founding. He led the party through the 2017 and 2020 general elections, in which the party received 0.2% and 1.5% of the party vote. The party replaced him as its leader shortly after the 2020 election, and according to the party he left it around November 2020. Baker participated in the 2022 Wellington protests, and was arrested on 2 March 2022 on charges of trespassing and obstruction. In June 2023, Baker formed the Leighton Baker Party. Political career Baker stood for the Kiwi Party in the 2008 general election, the only election it contested. Like many other Kiwi Party members, he joined the Conservative Party after it was founded in 2011. He stood for it in the 2011 and subsequent elections. Baker was on the board of the Conservative Party until he resigned from it in March 2015, with then-leader and founder Colin Craig saying that Baker did not want the commitment