Sussan Ley dismisses Liberal leadership speculation as ‘media frenzy’, as Andrew Hastie, Angus Taylor circle

Besieged Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has “absolutely” rejected suggestions her time in the Liberal party’s top job is over, with one of her main rivals refusing to rule out a tilt for the leadership.

On Monday, Ms Ley repeatedly refused to accept a challenge was looming to her position, as key conservative and shadow defence minister Angus Taylor declared the Liberal Party has “to do better” and needs to be “united to succeed”.

Ms Ley defined the latest “speculation” as just a “media frenzy”.

“I’m not speculating on something that is a media frenzy and is just speculation,” Ms Ley told reporters in Corowa, in her New South Wales electorate.

“Today is about Australia Day and celebrating what it means on this amazing day. Tomorrow we’re getting back to work for the Australian people.

“It is an honour to lead the Liberal Party and it is an honour to work hard with my team developing a really strong agenda. Much of that work is underway. There’s more to come.”

Asked when she would be naming her new shadow cabinet following last week’s Coalition split with the Nationals, Ms Ley insisted today was only for talking about what it meant to be Australian.

“I spoke a couple of days ago about the regrettable circumstances of the National Party deciding to leave the Coalition, and I said the door was open. And I know a lot of people will be having conversations and reflections.”

“They’ll be talking about the door being open. Let’s see what those next steps are. My eye is not on the door. My eye is on the Australian people, and the job they sent us here to do in the Parliament and in our individual communities for them.”

Meanwhile, Liberal leadership aspirant Angus Taylor has spoken publicly for the first time since returning to Australia from a recent European holiday, refusing to rule out an imminent challenge to Ms Ley.

“As a member of shadow cabinet, I have obligations, and I will always honour those obligations…but I hear today and I hear from colleagues, we have to do better and that means protecting Australian values, standing up for hard working Australians who want to get ahead, making sure they have the opportunities they need, and protecting us from the very real threats that we’ve seen in recent months, and we know are pressuring Australians,” he said.

When questioned at an Australia Day event in Camden about his ambitions, he said he was prevented from commenting given his shadow cabinet position - but didn’t explicitly dismiss that he was considering a push for the leadership.

“What I would say is that the most important thing that Sussan can do, and all of us can do, is fight for those values (and) fight for aspirational Australians,” he told The Australian.

On Monday, most Liberal MPs were privately conceding that their first female leader would soon be removed, with backbenchers saying the likely date for a leadership spill would be in the first parliamentary sitting week of February.

Over the weekend, West Australian Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie repeatedly declined to comment on his leadership ambitions when he was approached by 7NEWS during a morning run.

“I just don’t want to talk about party matters to the media, it’s just not what we do,” Mr Hastie said on Sunday.

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, now a One Nation MP, told Sunrise on Monday he believed the former soldier and Canning MP now had enough support to become the next Liberal leader.

“I’ll put the kiss of death on them. I’d say Andrew Hastie has the numbers,” Mr Joyce said.