LNP MP Colin Boyce will move a spill motion to oust David Littleproud

Liberal National Party MP Colin Boyce will lead a spill against Nationals leader David Littleproud and challenge him for the top job.

On Wednesday, Mr Boyce confirmed to Sky News he would move the motion when parliament resumes the following Monday.

“I will be moving spill motion on Monday afternoon in the National Party party room to give my colleagues an option,” he said.

“Because the reality is: if they follow the course they’re on now we are going over the political cliff.”

He earlier claimed the National Party was “committing political suicide by removing itself from the Coalition”.

“The National Party now faces a broad flank onslaught from One Nation,” he said. “If they go it alone to the next election, they won’t have any resources, they won’t have any travel entitlements.

“Money will be extremely difficult to raise. They will not have all of those devoted staff that they’ve had for years, and things will be extremely difficult.”

Mr Boyce also claimed it was “obvious” Coalition would eventually get back together, referencing Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s offer for the National Party to reconsider.

“Obviously Sussan Ley has left the door open. She’s on the record. The door is open to re establish that coalition,” he said.

“And I believe that is what we should do. I think it is the most viable way forward for the National Party.”

Last week, National Party leader David Littleproud confirmed the historic alliance had shattered, saying a coalition was “untenable” under Ms Ley’s leadership.

The Nationals would not serve in a shadow ministry led by Ms Ley, he said.

His adversarial stance comes after the cutting of three rebel senators – all Nationals members – from the Liberal leader’s frontbench.

The trio were dumped after they broke shadow cabinet solidarity rules during a vote on Labor’s hate speech laws.

Littleproud breaks silence

Mr Littleproud has backed his party’s freedom to “voice different opinions” in his first public comments since Mr Boyce announced a leadership challenge.

“I stand by my record as Leader of The Nationals and what our Party Room has achieved, through important policy work and standing up for regional, rural and remote Australia,” he said in a Wednesday statement.

“The Nationals held all of its House of Representatives seats at the last election.

“The Nationals also fought to keep important policies, including the Regional Australia Future Fund, tougher action on supermarkets with divestiture powers, Universal Service Obligation reform to ensure better mobile phone coverage in regional areas, and dumping net zero while keeping all energy options on the table, including nuclear.

“More recently, The Nationals opposed Labor’s hate speech laws, due to the unknown slippery slope of stopping freedom of speech.”

‘Binfire’: Chalmers blasts Coalition spat

The ongoing drama between the former Coalition partners was a sign the conservatives had descended into chaos, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.

Referring to Mr Boyce’s challenge for National Party leadership, Mr Chalmers said: “He’s gone from telling everyone he wants to leave the National Party, and now today he says he wants to lead it.”

“So the National Party, the Liberal Party, the far right of Australian politics, is really descending into farce,” he said.

“It’s a kind of a bin fire of far right personality politics.”

He branded the opposition’s internal divisions as “unedifying attempt to try and be a paler shade of orange”, seemingly drawing parallels to Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Chalmers also refused to be drawn on recent polling, which has found One Nation surging ahead of the Coalition in popularity.

Nats’ brutal call on split

The dramatic Coalition split – a move which plunged both the Liberals and Nationals into chaos – has been deemed unnecessary by a Nationals senator, who admitted he does not know why it happened.

On Wednesday, Senator Canavan – who unsuccessfully challenged Mr Littleproud for the top job in May last year – told the Today Show he wasn’t sure when the two parties would make up.

“I don’t know why we did break up, really. There wasn’t a huge reason to do that,” he said.

“I’ve outlined why I thought we could have stayed together and how that could have happened.

“It’s happened though, so I’ve just got to say, focus on delivering results for the Australian people.

“That is what I’ll be doing when I get back to Canberra next week.”

‘Difficult’: Bragg backs Ley

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg backed Ms Ley’s leadership despite intense speculation she is staring down a leadership challenge from the Liberal Party’s right faction.

Asked whether he had been canvassed by colleagues for his vote, Senator Bragg said he hadn’t received any “serious requests … at this stage”.

“I mean, being opposition leader is probably the worst job in Australia,” he said.

“I think it’s been a particularly difficult six months or so for Sussan (Ley).

He added Ms Ley’s campaign to pressure Labor into establishing a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack was evidence of her “very good leadership”.

“And as I say, I think we can be grateful that we now have a serious investigation into these matters through a Royal Commission, I think, because of her advocacy and being so strong,” he said.

In a subtle reference to the Coalition split, Senator Bragg previously claimed the Liberal Party and National Party’s internal divisions had let Australians down.

When asked to clarify his comments, he said: “We’ve had a lot of problems in this country, which Australians are very frustrated about. And our job is to be an effective opposition that holds them to account.”

“So if you are beset with internal problems, it’s very hard to do that. And so now I think we have an opportunity to refresh, and I expect that we’ll do a better job of that in 2026.”