Senior Liberals concede the opposition had no choice but to quickly match Labor’s $8.5 billion Medicare pitch or risk being torn asunder like Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 when then opposition leader Bill Shorten mounted “Mediscare”.

The decision to back the package was taken on Saturday at a snap meeting of the opposition’s leadership group and expenditure review committee, before the policy was announced but in anticipation it was a big spending Medicare package.