Election fallout: Liberal MP says ScoMo should have quit but instead ‘blew the whole show up’

Scott Morrison cracked a whip and his wife served margaritas at a final party at Kirribilli House, as a furious Liberal MP said the PM should have quit before the election.

Scott Morrison has been filmed cracking a whip and his wife Jenny serving a tray of margaritas during a final party at Kirribilli House after the Liberals brutal loss.

Footage aired by 9News shows the outgoing PM hosting an afternoon party on the verandah of his official residence overlooking Sydney Harbour.

Reporter Mark Burrows said the event was “a chance for the Morrisons to say thank you to their staff and families”.

Scott Morrison cracks a whip during the party. Picture: 9News

Jenny Morrison got into the action too. Picture: 9News

#EXCLUSIVE: The outgoing Prime Minister hosted his last function at Kirribilli House this afternoon - with drinks, canapes, and whip-cracking to mark the occasion. @MarkWBurrows#9Newspic.twitter.com/JFCezxtP6R

— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) May 22, 2022

Mr Morrison was captured drinking beer, as his wife Jenny served a tray of margaritas.

Mr Morrison, Jenny and their daughter Abbey even showed off their whip-cracking skills.

It comes as a battle for the future of the Liberal Party has erupted, as the deeply wounded party tries to find its true north in the wake of Saturday’s electoral wipe-out.

As bloodletting began in earnest yesterday, one furious MP said outgoing prime minister Scott Morrison should have quit months ago when polls show he was despised — but instead “strapped himself to the Liberal Party like a suicide bomber and blew the whole show up”.

With the party losing a swathe of seats in the wealthy inner-city, but also bleeding supporters in working class suburbs and regions, deep soul-searching is underway into how the party must position itself for the future.

With the party set to lose at least 17 seats, its moderate wing has been virtually wiped out, and the dominant Queensland arm looks set to hold extra sway.

Moderate standard-bearer Senator Simon Birmingham was first out of the blocks publicly, saying the party was paying the price for failing to lock in climate and energy policy – in the form of the national energy guarantee – during the era of Malcolm Turnbull.

Outgoing Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also called on the party to be better at “articulating” its achievements on climate change. “Australia has not been well served by the culture wars on climate change,’’ he said.

Josh Frydenberg speaks to the media after his party lost the federal election. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

But outspoken Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan warned the party against reflexively chasing the Left-leaning voters who were swept up in the teal wave in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.

“If Left is code for higher taxes, more government regulation and woke policies, I can’t see how that’s a recipe for success,’’ he said.

He also urged calm after Senator Birmingham appeared to suggest there could be a split between the Liberal and National Coalition partners.

“I would hope that we can continue to work together, but obviously the National Party needs to – need to look at where the Liberal Party has felt this pain and reflect upon how it is that we, together, can manage to form a majority government in the future and what will be necessary,’’ Sen. Birmingham told the ABC.

“I see no need for that,’’ Senator Canavan said in response.

“We’ve got a very good working relationship.’’

Senator Matt Canavan visits the Burdekin. Picture: Scott Radford-Chisholm

An outgoing Liberal minister said the party was grappling with how to bridge the divide between wealthy inner-city voters, and the rest of Australia.

He said it was possible the divide was too wide to bridge.

Several Liberal sources defended Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s performance, saying he had been a victim of Labor’s effective character assassination strategies.

But one angry MP said the outgoing prime minister should have done the honourable thing and resigned months ago when polls showed he was entrenched in an unwinnable position.

“He strapped himself to the Liberal Party like a suicide bomber and blew the whole show up,’’ the MP said.

Several MPs urged colleagues to calm down and wait for the “dust to settle’’ before any decisions were made about ideological direction.

Some argued there needed to be a move to the “centre-right”, others a rebuilding of the moderate faction and increases in female representation, while some called for the party to stop pandering to “the left”.

Karen Andrews. Picture: Mike Batterham

Outgoing Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, who suffered a primary vote haircut to the Greens in her Gold Coast seat, said the Liberals needed to “go back” and “look at our values … to make sure we are properly representing the Australian people.”

But others within the party said the devastating results in inner-city seats across the country proved it couldn’t “out-Left the Left”, or that the party had lost credibility by refusing to discuss nuclear energy as a pathway to net zero emissions.

“No matter how much we do around climate and policy, there’s always going to be someone who one ups us,” they said.

And the Liberals soul-searching on climate policy will likely be further complicated by the Nationals, with the Coalition partner emboldened by results showing it had managed to hold all its seats.

Outgoing resources minister Keith Pitt said the pursuit of net zero had ultimately hurt the party.

“We were all told we needed to suck it up on net zero but as expected it made no bloody difference and it hurt us elsewhere,” he said.

Keith Pitt. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Projected losses in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia has bolstered Queensland’s position as the Coalition’s stronghold — with the potential loss of two seats to the Greens still setting up the state to hold a third of all Federal Liberal-aligned seats in the country.

One MP said Queensland would have a “big say within the party” as to what the Coalition and the Liberals would do moving forward.

Queensland MP Garth Hamilton, one of the few MPs willing to speak on the record, said the party needed to be “honest, credible and painfully earnest” in the aftermath of the election.

Mr Hamilton also defended the Coalition’s position as a “broad church”.

“The idea of a broad church demands that we remain reflective of a range of views, we need to continue to be that,” he said.

“Losing our Left flank is going to be a challenge. Our centre of gravity need to be in the centre-Right.”

Originally published as Election fallout: Liberal MP says ScoMo should have quit but instead ‘blew the whole show up’