Sussan Ley’s allies urge Angus Taylor’s backers ‘put your name to it’ amid leadership plot to oust her | Sussan Ley

Sussan Ley’s allies want the Liberal leader to demand her rivals put their names to a petition calling for a spill, forcing Angus Taylor’s backers to publicly reveal themselves as plotting to oust her.

The push was discussed in private talks on Tuesday and has echoes of the tactic then-Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull used to stall Peter Dutton’s ultimately failed leadership coup in 2018.

Sources close to Ley said the leader was not considering demanding the names given Taylor was still yet to declare his intentions.

Speculation is mounting that Taylor will resign from shadow cabinet on Wednesday afternoon to launch a leadership challenge on Friday morning at the latest.

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Under Liberal party conventions, MPs can request the leader call a special party room meeting to consider a motion to spill the leadership.

A group of Ley’s supporters – including leading moderates – want her to insist that Taylor’s supporters put their names to a petition to prove they have sufficient support for a challenge.

In a blunt message to Taylor’s backers, the New South Wales senator and leading moderate, Maria Kovacic, told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program: “If you want this, put your name to it and get it over with.”

“We need … to have those individuals be very transparent about why it is that they want a spill, and that they want that spill,” she said.

“If we’re being accountable, put your name to it. I think we’ve all had enough of what’s been going on over the past couple of months. It has spiralled out of control in the last few days, and enough is enough.”

Another Ley supporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Guardian Australia that “cowardice cannot be tolerated”.

“Those that want to support the greatest act of misogyny in recent times cannot be allowed to hide in the shadows of the party room,” they said.

The MP said colleagues were “bemused” that Taylor and fellow frontbenchers James Paterson and Jonno Duniam hadn’t resigned from Ley’s senior leadership team, given the trio of right-wingers attended secret talks last month to discuss if Taylor or Andrew Hastie would challenge Ley.

In 2018, Turnbull demanded that Dutton’s supporters present him with the names of the majority of the party room before convening a second meeting of the week to consider a spill.

Dutton secured the 43 names but ended up losing a subsequent leadership ballot to Scott Morrison.

Ley did not face a spill motion at Tuesday morning’s Liberal party room meeting.

A spill motion was always considered unlikely given senators were not expected to attend due to estimates hearings.

However, some upper house MPs were present at the closed-door meeting, including the Victorian backbencher Jane Hume.

After warning on Monday that the party would be “wiped out” without an urgent change in direction, Hume directly challenged Ley at Tuesday’s meeting to outline how she planned to turn things around.

In response, Ley told the room words to the effect of “disunity is death”, according to two Liberal MPs present at the meeting.

Hume is a moderate but supported the conservative Taylor in last year’s leadership ballot against Ley, infuriating her factional allies and contributing to her sacking from shadow cabinet.

The former shadow finance minister, who worked closely with Taylor when he was Peter Dutton’s shadow treasurer, has been mentioned as a candidate for deputy leader if Taylor wins the leadership.

Taylor’s supporters are adamant the 59-year-old has the numbers to win the leadership this week, arguing Ley’s position was untenable after the latest Newspoll showed the Coalition’s primary vote has collapsed to 18% – nine percentage points behind One Nation.

Ley is refusing to voluntarily step aside and her allies remain sceptical that Taylor has the numbers.

Senior moderates remain supportive of Ley and are refusing to do a deal with Taylor to engineer her exit, meaning the rightwinger will need to woo centre-right and unaligned MPs to secure the leadership.

Ley defeated Taylor 29 votes to 25 to win the Liberal leadership after the 2025 election.

The makeup of the party room has changed since then, with Ley losing supporters Hollie Hughes, Linda Reynolds and Gisele Kapterian, who was allowed to vote in the ballot while counting continued in Bradfield.

Taylor has gained an extra supporter in Jess Collins, who replaced Hughes in the senate.

Asked directly on Tuesday if he supported Ley remaining as leader, the Liberal frontbencher and moderate powerbroker Andrew Bragg told ABC’s RN Breakfast: “Yes, I do”.

The senior Liberal rightwinger Jonathon Duniam said Taylor needed to come clean about his plans.

“If there is an intention for leadership to change, then people need to make their views clear. If they’re not going to, they need to rule it out,” he told Sky News.