Stuart Ayres to be reinstated if Coalition wins state election

Embattled Penrith MP Stuart Ayres will return to NSW’s cabinet if Dominic Perrottet and the Coalition are re-elected at the March election, it can be revealed.

Penrith MP Stuart Ayres will return to cabinet if the Coalition wins the next election.

Mr Ayres resigned from the Ministry in August amid the trade commissioner scandal after an inquiry found the recruitment process was not at “arm’s-length”.

He denied wrongdoing, and was later cleared of breaching the Ministerial Code of Conduct by a separate investigation.

A spokesman for Premier Dominic Perrottet confirmed that Mr Ayres would return to cabinet, and hold a senior ministerial position, in a re-elected Coalition government.

“Stuart Ayres bleeds Penrith and has the experience and record to continue to deliver on the NSW Liberal and Nations’s long term economic plan to drive NSW forward,” the spokesman said.

Stuart Ayres will return to cabinet if the Coalition wins the state election. Picture: David Swift

“Stuart has the energy, the experience, the ideas and the drive to continue to make a strong contribution and he will be a senior minister in a re-elected Liberal and Nationals Government.”

Mr Perrottet had been considering reinstating Mr Ayres to the Ministry as recently as December as part of a wider reshuffle.

That reshuffle has since been postponed.

Some Liberals had speculated that Mr Ayres was considering withdrawing from the election if he was not promised a return to the Ministry.

Mr Ayres holds his seat of Penrith with a razor-thin margin of just 0.4 per cent.