Jacinda Ardern in hot water after breaking social distancing for selfie

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been forced to apologise after an image emerged of her taking a selfie on the election campaign trail.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has landed herself in hot water after she abandoned social distancing to take a selfie with a mob of fans on the campaign trail.

Ms Ardern was at Massey University in Palmerston North last week as she campaigns as Labour leader for the upcoming election.

New Zealanders will be heading to the polls on October 17 this year, after an outbreak of coronavirus in the country led to the government delaying the election by just under a month.

The selfie included at least 17 people including Ms Ardern, none of whom were wearing masks.

Under current restrictions, New Zealanders are supposed to keep two metres distance to stop the spread of COVID-19. But Ms Ardern was mobbed by supporters while leaving the university, and after reportedly asking for space, she acquiesced and took the selfie with the group.

Ms Ardern has now apologised for the selfie, saying “it was the wrong thing”. Appearing on NZ political program The AM Show, Ms Ardern said, “I shouldn’t have done it.”

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Jacinda Ardern has been criticised for breaking her government's own social distancing guidelines with this selfie.

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“I’ve acknowledged it was the wrong thing, I shouldn’t have taken a selfie, you know I’m not going to defend it” @jacindaardern @TheAMShowNZ #selfiegate #nzpol pic.twitter.com/tDJnObxuqC

— The Orwellian 🇳🇿 (@TheOrwellianNZ) September 21, 2020

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“I shouldn’t have taken a selfie, you know? I’m not going to defend it,” Ms Ardern said.

“I should have stepped further forward and I should have asked for people to give themselves space behind each other.

“Have you said ‘sorry’?” the host asked her.

“I’ll say it now, I’ve acknowledged it was the wrong thing to do so I’m sorry for it,” she said.

“Sorry is not a word that can’t be spoken by me, or politicians. It’s sometimes treated as if it’s a massive surprise that we are apologising for something.”

She added when she agrees to take selfies, people often “rush in”.

“It’s about mitigation,” she said. “It is hard. We know through this what we've been asking of people is hard.

“I’m an example of how we won’t always be perfect.

“That’s why we’ve got to put in lots of layers of protection to look after one another.”