Liberal leadership: Andrew Hastie support gains momentum as calls for Sussan Ley to step down grow

Disenchanted Liberals are hoping for a clean kill — keen for Sussan Ley to resign as party leader as Andrew Hastie firms as her replacement.

Hastie supporters claimed on Saturday that support for Mr Hastie was far greater than for Angus Taylor — seen as the other main contender to replace Ley.

One Liberal source told The Sunday Times Mr Hastie already had more than 20 MPs backing him to become leader — the Canning MP only needing six more votes to topple Ms Ley.

Although Mr Hastie has yet to publicly state he intends to challenge Ms Ley for the leadership of the party, supporters claim the Liberal leader’s leadership is terminal.

Mr Hastie declined to comment on Saturday.

But it is now an open secret that numbers are being crunched to gauge support for Mr Hastie as leader.

“It’s reasonable to say that Andrew Hastie on a hard count is already into the 20s,” a Liberal Party source said.

“Very clearly there is more support for Andrew (than Angus Taylor) and by a factor of probably four, because the Right faction have basically gone to Andrew and drafted him and said ‘these are critical times for the Liberal Party.

“The party is facing an existential threat to our ability to connect to normal Australian voters and the only person who has demonstrated an ability to cut through the noise of modern politics and be relevant in that way is Andrew.”

Hastie supporters said they were hoping Taylor would not seek the leadership of the party.

“When Angus seeks the counsel of his colleagues in the party room, I think he will quickly discover that the support he might have imagined isn’t actually there,” a source said.

“Once Angus withdraws from the race, the only other credible candidate putting themselves in the position to win at this point is Andrew.”

Sussan Ley’s leadership is on life support following the refusal of David Littleproud’s Nationals to be part of a Ley-led Coalition.

The Coalition split happened after Ms Ley accepted the resignations of Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and Ross Cadell after they went against the Liberals and shadow cabinet’s position and voted against Anthony Albanese’s legislation which cracked down on hate groups and radical Islamic preachers.

The resignations prompted Mr Littleproud and his entire front bench to quit the shadow ministry.

Mr Littleproud declined to comment on Saturday.

On Saturday, Ms Ley also declined to comment on the crisis, her office referring The Sunday Times to comments the Opposition Leader had made during the week.

Asked by the media on Friday whether she would be leader this time next month, when Parliament resumes, Ms Ley answered: “Yes, and I’m being backed by my Liberal Party in the decisions that I’ve made to date.”

But several Liberal sources told The Sunday Times on Saturday Ms Ley’s leadership was terminal and that she should step down to prevent an ugly leadership brawl.

“Parliament goes back February 3 and the show goes on,” a source said.

“The only question now is who is in the driver’s seat.

“There is no doubt (Sussan Ley standing down) would be the best scenario, but it is an unlikely scenario because most leaders in their final days develop a siege mentality and seek refuge in the bunker.

“That’s an unfortunate reality of politics.

“Sussan Ley’s leadership is terminal and that’s a very widespread view that is held by MPs and political party members.”

Ley became Federal Liberal leader after a disastrous 2025 election result that saw the Peter-Dutton-led Coalition smashed.

In WA, the Liberals now hold just four of 16 Federal seats.

It is understood that should there be a vote on Ms Ley’s leadership, only one of eight WA Liberal MPs and senators — Melissa Price in Durack — would support her.

Ms Price confirmed her continued support for Ms Ley on Saturday, adding she believed the majority of the parliamentary party also supported her.

She said Ms Ley had ruled the party under difficult circumstances.

“From day one, Sussan has been under immense pressure,” Ms Price said.

“And I don’t think she has been given a fair-dinkum chance.”

But under Ms Ley, not only has the Coalition not made any apparent gains, it has gone backwards at the expense of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation which now enjoys a 22 per cent primary vote, with the Coalition on 21 per cent in polls.

Like Ms Hanson, Mr Hastie has been critical of Australia’s immigration policy.

In October last year, Mr Hastie resigned from shadow cabinet, citing a disagreement over the party’s immigration policy.

Mr Hastie has also been a vocal opponent of net zero emission targets.