Election 2025: Dumped Liberal Ben Britton was endorsed despite claims he lied during preselection

The NSW Liberal Party has provided no clarity on why it selected Ben Britton as its candidate for Whitlam, despite senior members disputing his alleged qualifications.

Peter Dutton with dumped Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam, Benjamin Britton.

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The dumped Liberal candidate for Whitlam, Ben Britton, is accused of lying in a preselection application after saying he volunteered and interviewed for roles in the ­offices of Liberal frontbenchers Andrew Hastie and James Paterson, casting into doubt the party’s vetting process.

Mr Britton, who was dropped from the party’s Whitlam ticket on Sunday, told The Australian he had been shortlisted for a role in Mr Hastie’s office and volunteered with Senator Paterson, verifying a candidacy document lodged in his name.

“I was interviewed for a position in Andrew Hastie’s office, and my CV was shortlisted in case any positions become available,” he said on Tuesday.

“I had a voluntary role with James Paterson … he was a very good shadow minister. It was a voluntary role to start the relationship on a professional level, and it was agreed that’s what it would start as.”

Spokespeople for both the opposition defence spokesperson and opposition home affairs spokesperson disputed this.

“Mr Britton has never held any role on Senator Paterson’s team, voluntary or paid,” a spokesperson for Senator Paterson said.

Mr Britton was dropped from the Whitlam candidacy on Sunday over “views expressed which were not previously disclosed and are inconsistent with the party’s position”. It comes after multiple media reports unearthed Mr Britton’s vocal opposition to women enlisting for combat roles within the ADF.

Mr Britton blamed his ousting on a factional “witch hunt” within the state branch, saying his views on female recruitment aligned with Mr Hastie, who in a 2018 interview with Sky News said the “fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s ­exclusively male”.

“Mr Britton has never met Mr Hastie, nor has he volunteered, worked or interviewed for a role in his office. Any suggestion of a professional connection is incorrect,” a spokesperson for Mr Hastie told The Australian.

The NSW Liberal Party did not respond to questions seeking to verify Mr Britton’s statements and clarify whether it had made any efforts to fact-check the claims in his candidacy form.

Mr Britton said he had not misrepresented his contact with the offices of Senator Paterson and Mr Hastie, providing The Australian with edited extracts of email communications he said were between himself, Senator Paterson and an assistant in Mr Hastie’s office. These could not be independently proven legitimate, and the offices of Senator Paterson and Mr Hastie said they did not lend credence to his claim.

“Thank you for providing your CV to the shadow minister for defence, the Hon Andrew Hastie MP,” one email reads. “Your details have been retained on file for consideration should a role arise suitable to your skills and accomplishments.”

Another email purportedly from Senator Paterson reads: “It was great to catch up last week Ben ... (we) will be in touch with any advice or assistance we might need in the future.”

Opposition defence spokesperson Andrew Hastie. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Britton said the party’s choice to swap him out for former state MP Nathaniel Smith in the Whitlam race was due to the manoeuvring of Liberal factionalists of all stripes who feared his ­“honesty” and appetite for party reform.

He refused to say which “senior shadow minister” asked him to withdraw his candidacy, who else had been kicked from the partyroom, or who suggested he join the Liberal Party at all.

“I parted ways with the United Australia Party (after serving as their 2022 Cunningham candidate) because it deregistered. A senior former Liberal MP approached me and liked the way I conducted myself,” he said. “I was the only candidate who nominated for the (Whitlam) seat.”

Mr Britton said the well-documented factional warring within the NSW Liberal Party was not stamped out when Peter Dutton placed the state branch into administration after it failed to nominate 120 local election candidates in September.

“All that happened with the administration taking over was the factions stepped back, bided their time, and continued to meet in secret and continue exactly the way that they had been going before. Behind the scenes, nothing has changed. The factions are still in control of the NSW division,” he said.

“They dumped me because they knew I supported the reforms of the party that was to come after the election … I became public enemy No 1 to the factions, because they knew I was honest. I would do the right thing by the people, and by the members, and by Australia, and that I could not be bought.

“A very senior shadow minister contacted me and attempted to get me to withdraw. I declined, and then I was told, ‘If you don’t, they’ll just disendorse you anyway’, but I refused to stand down.”

Mr Britton intends to run as an independent in Whitlam and has until Thursday noon to enrol.