Senior Liberal figures have downplayed the prospect of Sussan Ley losing a potential looming leadership spill, saying she enjoys support from most of the opposition party room and urging their colleagues to “get on with the job” of holding the government to account.
While speculation continues to swirl about the leadership ambitions of Angus Taylor, the deputy Liberal leader, Ted O’Brien, said any shadow frontbencher who didn’t support Ley was obliged to stand down.
“The convention is, if one does not support the leader, they step aside. Angus hasn’t done that. So my running assumption is he continues to support Sussan Ley,” O’Brien told the ABC’s Insiders.
“As for whether or not there will be a challenge, I don’t believe we’re walking into a period where there will be. But I don’t know the future either.”
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The shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, also rubbished the possibility Ley would lose or even face a leadership spill, after media reporting that Taylor could seek to run for the top job as early as this week when parliament resumes.
“There’s obviously been speculation, but I quite frankly believe entirely that Sussan Ley has the support of the party room and that she will remain our leader into the future,” Ruston told Sky News.
“Right now the leader is Sussan Ley, and I think everybody’s been quite clear on the frontbench that they support the leader and we just need to get on with the job.”
Taylor, the shadow defence minister, narrowly lost a leadership vote to Ley after the May 2025 election, and despite a destabilisation campaign run by Ley’s critics ever since, numbers in the party room are still said to be close, with the opposition leader’s backers confident she would narrowly win a vote if held today.
Senior conservative figures Taylor and backbencher Andrew Hastie had been posturing for a potential leadership tilt for some time, with speculation and backroom discussions heightening after the messy split of the Coalition parties after a dispute between the Liberal and National parties over hate speech laws. The two right-faction figures met in Melbourne last week, alongside members of Ley’s leadership team, James Paterson and Jonno Duniam.
Hastie announced late on Friday that he would not seek the leadership at this time, conceding he did not have sufficient party room support. Hastie’s Friday announcement was seen by some as clearing the way for Taylor to make his challenge in the near future. Hours after Hastie’s statement, Taylor posted a glowing endorsement of his colleague on social media, describing the backbencher as a “patriot” and “great asset to the Liberal cause” with a “fierce intellect”, and saying they shared similar views on “reducing immigration, restoring cheap energy, reviving Australian industry, and rebuilding national pride”.
Ruston, an ally of Ley, praised the opposition leader’s recent actions.
“I think Sussan’s been doing an amazing job of being the leader in the toughest time that I can remember being in the parliament,” she said.
Labor’s health minister, Mark Butler, ridiculed the recent dysfunction inside the former Coalition.
“I don’t understand how Angus Taylor is still on the frontbench. He is so obviously putting together a leadership challenge,” he told Sky News.
“There’s a small opposition now of barely 28 members, and that is split right down the middle between Sussan Ley supporters and Angus Taylor supporters, so frankly how they’re going to be able to pull all of that mess together to provide the job that they have to do for the Australian people, which is to present an alternative in the parliament to the government, is frankly beyond me.”
O’Brien said he and many colleagues backed Ley’s actions during the standoff with the Nationals, which led to the Coalition split, saying he believed “the majority of the party room” backed her as leader.
“I haven’t found anybody in the Liberal party who has disagreed with the judgments or decisions taken by Sussan Ley, and I have faith in her navigating through this next phase as she keeps the door open to see if there’s a way we can return [to Coalition],” he said.
Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud are expected to meet on Monday or Tuesday to discuss potential reunification of the Coalition before parliament returns on Tuesday afternoon. Littleproud is facing a leadership spill of his own, launched by outspoken backbencher Colin Boyce, but is expected to prevail.
O’Brien said the two Coalition parties were stronger together, but said the two leaders needed to have “serious discussions” before reuniting.
Ruston also said she wanted to see the two parties back together, but suggested the Liberals could continue alone and win elections without the Nationals.
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