Andrew Laming hit by fresh leaks ahead of preselection

A BAYSIDE Liberal National MP is facing an increasingly bitter preselection battle, targeted by fresh leaks of claims by disgruntled former branch members.

THE Liberal National Party asked then special minister of state Scott Ryan last year to investigate claims Andrew Laming had engineered fake redundancy payments for his staff and pocketed some of the payouts.

But LNP president Gary Spence, who was told of the allegations by the people who then ran Mr Laming's local branch, said they could not be stacked up.

MP pushes boy

Laming under attack

Move to shield MP

A report detailing the claims has been leaked to The Courier-Mail as the federal Member for Bowman faces an increasingly bitter preselection battle tomorrow night, with some of his supporters having deserted him.

It can also be revealed the LNP sought detailed information about Dr Laming's citizenship, with senior party figures concerned he may be entitled to Russian citizenship through his wife, who was born in Latvia.

But LNP state director Michael O'Dwyer told The Courier-Mail the claims were not proven.

"We have no concerns about Andrew meeting Section 44 obligations in terms of citizenship," he said.

Mr Spence said “every single candidate” who had been preselected or endorsed had been through the party’s applicant review process.

Andrew Laming faces ongoing agitation from Bowman branch members

The leaks suggest ongoing tensions among Dr Laming's local branch members, after the former executive team of his federal divisional council abandoned support for him and endorsed rival Paul Branagan.

Local chairman Shaun Edwards, secretary Suzi Foster and treasurer Paul Field were recently suspended from the party for a year after they wrote to other members complaining about Dr Laming's behaviour and calling for him to be dumped as the LNP's candidate.

In a report sent to Mr Spence last year, the executive warned they had received a tip-off that Dr Laming had overpaid former employees in their severance pay and had kept some for himself.

The authors admitted that on face value there did not appear to be much to the allegation, but urged the LNP to investigate further, noting they were concerned about Dr Laming because his federal office in Cleveland had been searched by Australian Federal Police some years earlier.

Government sources said the claims were investigated by Mr Ryan last year, but there was not enough detail to substantiate them.

The AFP raided the offices of Dr Laming and his colleagues Ross Vasta and Gary Hardgrave in 2007 over claims of misuses of taxpayer funded printing allowances but the trio were cleared of breaching their entitlements.

One LNP source said the leaking of the complaint showed the preselection battle had turned "nasty" and suggested it could help boost support for Dr Laming.

LNP backbencher Andrew Laming has accused his failed preselection challengers of circulating false allegations that he pocketed money from redundancy payouts awarded to staff.

Dr Laming, who won LNP preselection last Thursday night, has confirmed he asked then Special Minister of State Scott Ryan to investigate the claims in 2017.

He said he believed his preselection challenger Paul Branagan and three former executive members of the local LNP “were lying about receiving a call” regarding the allegation.

But he passed on the details and Senator Ryan “confirmed that all my employment paperwork was in order”, he said.

“Earlier this year, the same four individuals announced their ultimately failed preselection challenge, again repeating their vague allegations,” Dr Laming told The Courier-Mail.

“It remains impossible to investigate an anonymous allegation made by a few individuals running a preselection campaign.

“Every element of my staff employment was in order then, and remains so.”