By Tess Ikonomou in Canberra

With preparations possibly under way to roll Sussan Ley, key Liberal backers insist she will remain as leader of the opposition.

A leadership spill is shaping up for early February when parliament returns after a week of chaos that resulted in the coalition splitting for the second time since the 2025 federal election.

Conservatives Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie are seen as the frontrunners to challenge Ms Ley.

But Liberal frontbencher and moderate Julian Leeser declared she had his “unequivocal support”.

“During this period where Australia has been in a period of national crisis, she has shown the leadership that the prime minister has failed to do,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

Asked if Mr Hastie, who has publicly spoken about his leadership ambitions, would be effective at countering rising support for One Nation, Mr Leeser replied: “Sussan Ley is our leader and Sussan Ley is the person that I support in that role.”

Liberal sources have spoken of internal anger towards Nationals leader David Littleproud for having blown up the political alliance on Thursday, which is being viewed as an act of intervention in the senior coalition party.

He said the three Nationals senators who resigned from the shadow cabinet after voting against Labor’s hate speech laws needed to be reinstated before the parties could reconcile.

“That’s the threshold question that our party room took,” he said.

“That’s the threshold question that was given to Sussan, she wasn’t prepared to accept it.”

By voting against Labor’s laws, an agreed position, the three senators broke the convention of shadow cabinet solidarity, triggering their resignations – which were accepted by Ms Ley.

It’s Littleproud’s leadership that should be on the line