Angus Taylor does not have the numbers to challenge for Liberal leadership, Sussan Ley allies say

Supporters of Sussan Ley are openly taunting rival Angus Taylor as the moderates believe the challengers don’t yet have the numbers to remove her from the Liberal leadership.

Nevertheless, some Liberals believe jockeying is already underway for frontbench positions under Mr Taylor.

Any challenge to come before Parliament rises for three weeks would need to be flagged by Wednesday afternoon, with the potential for a party room meeting to be held on Friday.

No one moved against Ms Ley when Liberal colleagues met in Canberra on Tuesday.

But senator Jane Hume did confront the leader about what her plan was to improve the party’s standing in the polls, a day after the influential Newspoll put the party on a 15 per cent primary vote and One Nation nearly twice as high.

One source in the meeting said they were surprised Ms Ley didn’t have a rallying speech for her colleagues prepared in response.

Leading moderate Andrew Bragg said Ms Ley had been “dealt a pretty bad hand” particularly with the Nationals twice blowing up the Coalition.

“It’s been a pretty tough few months for Sussan. And I think most Australians would look at that and say, well, she needs to be given a reasonable crack at the job. And that’s what I expect will happen,” he said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a leading figure in the party’s right flank said Mr Taylor needed to show his hand.

“If Angus is interested in, as many are speculating, the leadership, then he should say so. That’s something he needs to make clear,” shadow minister Jonno Duniam said.

“We have had, of course, nine months since the last election where, frankly, we have not hit the mark when it comes to offering the people of Australia what it is they’re looking for… It isn’t all at the feet of one person, the leader of our party.

“We all have a role to play, and so for all this talk of changing leaders and whatnot, that is not the answer to every problem we face.”

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reappeared inside Parliament House on Tuesday to warn his one-time Liberal colleagues their party was headed for electoral oblivion as they prepare to oust their first female leader.

“I sympathise with all of my former colleagues, but they are in a terrible state. The Liberal Party is facing an existential crisis,” he told reporters.

His visited Parliament in his capacity as the president of the International Hydropower Association, and said topics like energy infrastructure and prices were what the party should be talking about, not its internal woes.

“This is the inevitable consequence for the Liberal Party of imagining that the goal of politics is to seek the approval of the Sky News audience. Now that may well represent many of the members of their branches, but it does not represent Australia,” he said.

“And if you run off into La La Land, which is where they’ve headed, then, well, then you find yourself running second to Pauline Hanson.”

Mr Taylor told a News Corp documentary on the future of the Liberals that trying to copy One Nation would be “a serious error”, although he acknowledged there was a wake-up call coming from supporters who had shifted to the minor party.

Asked whether Mr Taylor was fit to be the party’s leader, Mr Turnbull’s response was blunt: “The only qualification for being Leader of the Opposition is to be a member of the House of Representatives.”

He said Labor would be “rubbing their hands and hugging themselves with glee” watching the catastrophe play out.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked his caucus colleagues for their “discipline and dignity” over the past couple of weeks.

“Our task is to continue as the adults in government, in contrast to the circus that we see from the Opposition,” he told a meeting of Labor MPs, according to a source in the room.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers turned up the heat on Mr Taylor during Question Time, recalling the Liberal’s role as the shadow treasurer under Peter Dutton.

“The reason those opposite are in a real bind is because half of the party room supports the member for Hume and the other half have met him,” Dr Chalmers said.

“If they flick the switch this week, as they might from the member for Farrer to the member for Hume, that will mean they have less economic credibility not more.”