New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said that she will resign from her position next month. At Labour Party’s annual meeting, Ardern said she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job.

“It’s time,” she said, adding that during the summer back break, she reflected on whether she had the energy to continue leading the country and had ultimately concluded that she did not.

Ardern’s term as prime minister will conclude no later than February 7. “I am human, politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time,” she said.

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Who is Jacinda Ardern?

Jacinda Ardern, full name Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, is a New Zealand politician who is serving as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the labour party since 2017. She has been a member of Parliament (MP) from Labour Party for Mount Albert since 2017.

She was born on July 26, 1980, in Hamilton and raised in Morrinsville and Murupara. Her father, Ross Ardern, was a police officer, and her mother, Laurell Ardern, worked as a school catering assistant. She studied at Morrinsville College. At school she found her first job, working at a local fish-and-chip shop.

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Ardern joined the Labour Party at the age of 17. In 2001, she graduated from the University of Waikato with a Bachelor of Communication Studies in politics and public relations, a specialist three-year degree.

She worked as an advisor in the office of then-Prime Minister Helen Clark. In 2005, she moved to London and worked in the Government Cabinet Office of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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Ardern was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2007. Next year, she entered New Zealand’s Parliament as a listed candidate. She became the youngest member of the House of Representatives at the age of 28.

In early 2017, she became the MP for the Auckland electorate of Mount Albert. She was appointed the Leader of the Labour Party in August 2017.

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Along with the Prime Minister, she holds the responsibilities of Minister for National Security and Intelligence, Minister of Arts, Culture, and Heritage, and Minister for Child Poverty Reduction.

Ardern declared a climate change emergency in New Zealand on December 2, 2020. She pledged that the Government would be carbon neutral by 2025 in a parliamentary motion.

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Her partner Clarke Gayford is a television presenter. In 2018, she gave birth to her first child and became the first leader of a country in 30 years to give birth while in office.