Turnbull ‘victory’ turns Liberals into unelectable rabble

A LEADER who loved the Liberals would resign rather than dragging out this damaging farce. But Malcolm Turnbull was only ever interested in Malcolm Turnbull, and has destroyed the Liberals, writes Andrew Bolt.

MALCOLM Turnbull has “won” today’s leadership vote against Peter Dutton, but it’s a victory that kills him and his tottering government.

The Prime Minister ambushed the Home Affairs Minister by calling a surprise vote at today’s meeting of Liberal MPs but still only won narrowly — 48 votes to 35.

Dutton is now likely to call for another vote when the Liberals return to Canberra for next month’s sittings, and he should then win the few waverers he needs to become our third Liberal Prime Minister in three years.

BLOG WITH BOLT

VICTORIANS OPINIONS ON THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP CRISIS

The fact is that Turnbull’s “victory” today was pathetic and embarrassing.

Dutton had until this morning not announced he was challenging, and had not lobbied many MPs for votes.

Dutton today resigned, despite Turnbull’s request that he stay. Picture: AAP

What’s more, many MPs were still disbelieving of this week’s shocking IPSOS poll, which showed the Coalition’s vote tanking to just 45 per cent against Labor’s 55, after preferences.

Those MPs wanted to see if the next Newspoll confirmed the total hopelessness of the Liberals’ chances of winning next year’s election.

They are kidding themselves, of course. Already Turnbull has lost 23 months of polls, and the next Newspoll, after the chaos of this past week, will be one of the worst.

A leader who loved the Liberals would resign rather than dragging out this damaging farce and turning his party into an even more unelectable rabble.

But Turnbull was only ever interested in Turnbull, and has destroyed the Liberals by trying to turn this Right-wing party into an image of his Left-wing self.

So he will now be like the Black Knight, claiming he’s only suffered a flesh wound, while the life of the Liberal party drains out.

Dutton must now introduce himself to voters. Picture: AP

The Liberals are now even more unelectable than before. Dutton, until now a key figure and stabilising force in the Turnbull Government, today resigned, despite Turnbull’s request that he stay.

He will spend the next weeks ringing colleagues, cutting deals and introducing himself to voters who until now have seen him only as the grim stopper of boats and deporter of foreign criminals.

Meanwhile, the polls will do the rest of his work for him — telling Liberal MPs that the public cannot stand a government so directionless and divided. Forget the lunatic suggestions that Turnbull could end it all by rushing to an early election. He’d be utterly mad to want an election that this week’s polls show he lose by 20 seats.

No, eventually the Liberal MPs will see what they should have seen last December, when there was still a chance for a new leader to strike a new direction and win the next election.

But it will all be too late, just as it was too late for Labor when it finally sacked Julia Gillard and brought back Kevin Rudd to save the furniture.

Of course, the Liberals should likewise replace Turnbull with the leader he knifed, too.

Tony Abbott is without doubt the best campaigner the Liberals have, but the Liberal MPs have been totally unable to recognise their best interests — let alone their principles.

So Dutton must suffice as their next best hope. All things being equal, he will be Prime Minister before Christmas.

If he’s not, conservatives should damn the Liberals to the destruction they deserve, and hope that from the ashes something better will finally grow.

MORE ANDREW BOLT