Sussan Ley’s allies rally around Liberal leader, but a united Hastie and Taylor would have numbers for spill

Sussan Ley’s allies are downplaying the looming Liberal leadership spill, claiming reports about the threat of two right-wing challengers to the top job are being overblown.

It comes despite numerous party insiders — including Liberal MPs themselves — telling The Nightly support is mounting for Canning MP Andrew Hastie and shadow defence minister Angus Taylor on the back of a break-up with the Nationals over the party’s backing of contentious hate speech laws.

Sources within the Opposition are so confident a challenge is impending, they have even broken down the current state of play, where it is understood Ms Ley has the support of 25 members of her party, compared to Mr Hastie’s 20 and Mr Taylor’s six.

It means if the two right-wing challengers to Ms Ley can unite, the faction would have the numbers to spark a spill. Sources also said the situation and vote breakdown was changing day-by-day and could move quickly.

Despite this, a string of the current leader’s backers lent their full support on Tuesday, including shadow minister Paul Scarr who stated Ms Ley had his “100 per cent support”.

“There’s obviously a lot of speculation in the media at the moment, but no one has announced a challenge, no one has announced an intention to call the spill,” Senator Scarr said.

“At the moment, there’s a lot of sound and fury, but really it signifies nothing.”

Andrew Wallace — who Ms Ley promoted to shadow attorney-general after Mr Hastie quit the frontbench last year — claimed the leadership chatter was merely “a small number of people who are trying to whip this into something that it’s not”.

“I think it’s a great shame, because Sussan had a had a very good turnaround over Christmas, we were making headways,” he said.

“She is the preferred prime minister in Victoria, in Queensland, she’s the preferred Prime Minister across the country with women. Sussan has been doing a great job in very difficult circumstances.”

Shadow small business minister Tim Wilson stated there wouldn’t be a spill when Parliament returns to Canberra next week.

The public pushback from the moderates is reminiscent of their late attempt to stop the party abandoning its net zero climate target last year.

All three said they hadn’t fielded any calls asking for their vote.

Right faction sources scoffed at this, saying conversations were taking place and the Ms Ley’s allies should be well aware.

Mr Wilson said that while he had not received any correspondence about votes, he was “quite sure” his colleagues had been working the phones.

“They do that whether there’s these moments or not. The question is, what are they making them for?” he said.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett commended Mr Wilson on social media for backing in his leader, while taking a swipe at Mr Littleproud.

“Leave the Nats out of the Coalition for a year, give other worthy Liberals the opportunity to shine,” he wrote.

He also accused Mr Hastie of “clearly putting his own interests before that of his family” given the demands of the Opposition leader’s role.

Mr Hastie’s supporters claim he has about 20 backers in the party room and Mr Taylor at least six in the 51-strong party room.

“Angus needs to do the best thing for the Liberal Party’s fight for survival and break the stalemate by backing Andrew Hastie,” one supporter of the West Australian MP said.

Even those close to Ms Ley conceded it was only the fact that the right’s support was split between the two men that was keeping her in the job right now.

The next Liberal party room meeting is scheduled for 9am on Tuesday.

However, the logistics of mounting a leadership spill — even if Ms Ley didn’t contest it — and a new leader having to front Question Time a few hours later are complicating considerations.

It’s still an open option that Ms Ley will announce her new shadow cabinet, to fill the 11 spots vacated by the Nationals, before parliament returns. This would mean a new leader pursuing reconciliation with the smaller party would have to demote a large number of people.

Meanwhile, yet another poll showed the surge of voter support for One Nation continuing.

The DemosAU survey of 1933 people, published in Capital Brief on Tuesday, put One Nation’s primary vote on 24 per cent, ahead of a combined Liberal and National Party vote of 21 per cent.

The fallout from the internal Coalition disputes is also set to see a Nationals senator dumped from a prized position on a committee that receives classified security briefings.

Labor is considering removing Susan McDonald from the prestigious Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security given the Nationals are now technically crossbenchers, The Nightly revealed on Saturday.

Senator McDonald said dumping her “would feel like silencing me for calling out the shortcomings of the recent antisemitism hate and firearms legislation that we examined”.

“Anthony Albanese ran on a transparency platform but he’s proven to be anything but. If the Labor government decides to remove members from these important roles, then it is a clear sign that Labor is trying to crush opposition and democratic process,” she told The Nightly.