David Littleprick appears to be taking his ball and going home again:
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says the federal Coalition is now “untenable”, blaming Sussan Ley for this week’s damaging split with the Nationals, as Liberal MPs say the opposition leader’s position is badly weakened by the chaos.
Wednesday’s resignation by three Nationals shadow ministers quickly escalated, with Littleproud and the party’s entire frontbench walking out. Littleproud confirmed on Thursday the party would sit separate from the Liberals when parliament resumes, ending decades of partnership.
Already under pressure over poor polling and a messy first six months in the job, Ley could face a challenge as soon as February. Liberals speaking on the condition of anonymity conceded a challenge by Angus Taylor or Andrew Hastie was increasingly inevitable due to the Coalition split. […]
Former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull was blunt, telling ABC radio the Coalition fight was “just making them more unelectable than they were before”.
“The bottom line is this: the Liberal party, to form government, needs to have the National party because it needs to have those regional seats,” he said.
“It also needs to win back seats in the city, which had been thought to be their biggest problem, but now they’ve lost the National party.
“But I think when they survey the scene, it looks like just a smouldering wreckage, doesn’t it?”
I don’t know. The last time this happened, the Coalition was back together only about a week later… but also the last time this happened, the Coalition hadn’t split for nearly 40 years, and this time it’s the same people squabbling and it’s only eight months since the last round. As for Sussan Ley’s leadership, well, she’s a woman leading the Liberal Party. They were never going to permit her to go far anyway. The real question, I think, is about Shittleproud’s leadership, cos apparently some Coalition sources reckon he could be as screwed as Sussan; maybe Colin Boyce is finally going to get his long-held desire… I’ve no doubt they’ll all be back together again sooner rather than later, but in what form? Maybe Barnaby Joyce’ll jump ship back to them from One Neuron if Littleproud does go…
