Former prime minister John Howard is urging the Liberal Party to “get behind” Sussan Ley as political infighting threatens to end her leadership of the coalition.
The opposition leader on Friday was again forced to bat away questions surrounding her job, declaring she was not “commenting on commentary” after Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said Ms Ley was losing the party’s support.
Internal division over the commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, as well as polling this week showing the coalition’s primary vote dropping to a record-low 24 per cent, has heightened the pressure on Ms Ley.
Asked if the Liberal leader would survive, Mr Howard said he believed she should.
“I haven’t been a member of parliament for almost 20 years – long time – and the world has changed, but I think Sussan Ley has got to be given a go,” he told AAP.
“And my request to the colleagues is to give her that go, get behind her.”
The former prime minister, who served who four terms in the top job before losing the 2007 election to Labor’s Kevin Rudd, said keeping the coalition with the Nationals was “integral to success”.
Mr Howard said it was foolish to say the party was in the worst state it had ever been.
“The Liberal Party is going through a bad phase, but if it … focuses on policy and working out quickly what it believes in and stands for, and then resumes the task of arguing and persuading, it can recover,” he said.
“But if it spends all its time on internal bickering, it won’t.
“People who are forecasting its demise have not understood the lessons of history.”
Ms Ley has been the leader of the Liberals for about six months.
Alexander Downer held the leadership of the party for the shortest time to date, serving in the role for eight months.
Senator Henderson, an opponent of net zero who was removed from shadow cabinet after the election, on Friday stopped well short of endorsing the opposition leader.
“I do think Sussan is losing support, but I do believe in miracles,” she told Sky News.
“We can turn things around, but things are not good. I don’t support things the way they are.”
The opposition leader’s two main rivals, Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie, have both called for the net zero target to be ditched.
Redbridge Group director and former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras said poor polling was a reflection of the “numerous conservative coalition MPs who have been freelancing policy ideas since they lost”.
“Sussan Ley has very, very little responsibility for what has actually happened … the very individuals who are criticising her are the ones who actually have driven the numbers down,” he said.
The Liberal Party’s position on the key climate target will be decided following meetings in Canberra next week.