Lib’s threat to run as independent over preselection battle

Liberal MP Craig Kelly won’t rule out running as an independent if the party dumps the conservative firebrand as a preselected candidate in his own electorate.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly won’t rule out running as an independent if the party dumps the conservative firebrand as a preselected candidate in his own electorate.

Mr Kelly told The Daily Telegraph he was “happy to stand in front of a room of Liberal preselectors” to argue his case to be the Liberal candidate for his southern NSW seat of ­Hughes, but admitted he had been warned by party powerbrokers from the moderate faction that he was set to lose the fight.

Liberal Member for Hughes Craig Kelly. Picture: AAP

The situation was further inflamed when Mr Kelly refused to rule out following former Liberal colleague Julia Banks to the crossbench on Sky News on Wednesday morning.

“You don’t play rule-in, rule-out games,” he said.

“You play hypothetical games all you want.”

However, Mr Kelly later told The Daily Telegraph reports he was considering quitting the party immediately were fake: “There’s no suicide vest on at the moment.”

It is believed that some conservative allies close to Mr Kelly are calling on him to quit the Liberals and run as an independent in Hughes against the party’s predicted pick to replace him, Kent Johns.