Angus Taylor resigns from shadow cabinet and says he does not believe Sussan Ley in position to lead Liberals | Angus Taylor
Angus Taylor has resigned from the shadow cabinet and is expected to challenge Sussan Ley for the Liberal leadership, declaring that the party is in its “worst shape” since its founding in 1944.
Taylor announced on Wednesday evening that he would resign from the shadow cabinet; This was the first step in an anticipated attempt to oust the party’s first female leader in nine months.
“I do not believe that Susan Ley is in a position to run the party the way it should be run,” he told an evening press conference.
“What we need now is strong leadership, clear direction and a bold focus on our values, and the top two priorities are to preserve our way of life and restore our standard of living.”
Other senior allies are expected to follow suit, leaving the frontbench and pressuring Ley to hold a party room meeting on Thursday or Friday to sort out the leadership.
Under party conventions, two or more Liberal MPs can request a special party room meeting to consider a motion to dissolve the leadership.
If the majority of MPs support the motion, the leader will be determined by secret ballot.
The 59-year-old’s announcement was widely expected after days of speculation that the shadow defense secretary would use a disastrous News Poll and infighting arising from the recent Coalition split as triggers to challenge Ley.
Moderate Ley won the leadership after the 2025 election by defeating conservative Taylor by 29 votes to 25.
While both parties are confident their candidates have majority support in the 51-member party chamber, both acknowledge the numbers are tight.
Ley’s leadership was seen as fatal after the Coalition split for a second time under his rule; senior Liberals believed their fate would be sealed as soon as Taylor and right-winger Andrew Hastie decided which of them would run.
Hastie withdrew from the race on January 30 following secret talks with right-wing powerbrokers in Melbourne, leaving the Hume MP with a clear lead.
Ley reached a deal to reunify the Coalition on Sunday but some MPs believed the concessions to the National Party had damaged his credibility and shifted key voters to Taylor, despite him lobbying for reunification.
Taylor refused to confirm his intentions and continued to attend meetings of the shadow cabinet and Ley’s Liberal leadership team, including on Wednesday morning.
Taylor did not mention his immediate challenge at Wednesday’s meeting, sources said.
Conservatives and moderates grew increasingly frustrated Wednesday as Taylor delayed the announcement.
Ben Small, a member of Taylor’s right wing, told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing: “I think speculation is useless because it robs us of our oxygen of holding the government to account.”
The opposition leader’s allies pressured Ley to insist Taylor’s supporters put their names on a leak petition, using the same tactic Malcolm Turnbull used to stop Peter Dutton’s attempted coup in 2018.
in 2018 Turnbull made demands from Dutton his supporters are offering him the names of the majority of the party hall to justify a second leadership leak in as many days.
Liberal senator and moderate power broker Andrew Bragg said: “We’re not paid to play games, it’s winks. We get paid to work hard for the Australian people. If people want to do something, they should put their name to it.”
MPs also discussed replacing deputy leader Ted O’Brien with senator Jane Hume and Goldstein MP Tim Wilson.
Hume warned this week that the party would be “destroyed” without an immediate change of direction after a News poll published on Monday showed the Coalition’s preselection vote falling to 18%, nine points below One Nation.
The Victorian senator is moderate but backed Taylor in the final leadership vote, infuriating his factional allies and contributing to his ouster from the shadow cabinet.
More details to come
