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Senior Liberal figures have downplayed the prospect of Sussan Ley<\/a> losing a potential looming leadership spill, saying she enjoys support from most of the opposition party room and urging their colleagues to \u201cget on with the job\u201d of holding the government to account.<\/p>\n While speculation continues to swirl about the leadership ambitions of Angus Taylor, the deputy Liberal leader, Ted O\u2019Brien, said any shadow frontbencher who didn\u2019t support Ley was obliged to stand down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe convention is, if one does not support the leader, they step aside. Angus hasn\u2019t done that. So my running assumption is he continues to support Sussan Ley,\u201d O\u2019Brien told the ABC\u2019s Insiders.<\/p>\n \u201cAs for whether or not there will be a challenge, I don\u2019t believe we\u2019re walking into a period where there will be. But I don\u2019t know the future either.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/sub><\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d Ruston told Sky News.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now the leader is Sussan Ley, and I think everybody\u2019s been quite clear on the frontbench that they support the leader and we just need to get on with the job.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s critics ever since, numbers in the party room are still said to be close, with the opposition leader\u2019s backers confident she would narrowly win a vote if held today.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, alongside members of Ley\u2019s leadership team, James Paterson and Jonno Duniam.<\/p>\n Hastie announced late on Friday that he would not seek the leadership at this time<\/a>, conceding he did not have sufficient party room support. Hastie\u2019s Friday announcement was seen by some as clearing the way for Taylor to make his challenge in the near future. Hours after Hastie\u2019s statement, Taylor posted a glowing endorsement of his colleague on social media, describing the backbencher as a \u201cpatriot\u201d and \u201cgreat asset to the Liberal cause\u201d with a \u201cfierce intellect\u201d, and saying they shared similar views on \u201creducing immigration, restoring cheap energy, reviving Australian industry, and rebuilding national pride\u201d.<\/p>\n Ruston, an ally of Ley, praised the opposition leader\u2019s recent actions.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Sussan\u2019s been doing an amazing job of being the leader in the toughest time that I can remember being in the parliament,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Labor\u2019s health minister, Mark Butler, ridiculed the recent dysfunction inside the former Coalition.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand how Angus Taylor is still on the frontbench. He is so obviously putting together a leadership challenge,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien said he and many colleagues backed Ley\u2019s actions during the standoff with the Nationals, which led to the Coalition split, saying he believed \u201cthe majority of the party room\u201d backed her as leader.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t found anybody in the Liberal party<\/a> 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\u2019s a way we can return [to Coalition],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n