Former MP King muddies the Wentworth waters for Libs

Malcolm Turnbull’s sworn political enemy is considering a run at the Liberal party preselection for the seat of Wentworth.

Then Liberal candidate Malcolm Turnbull on the campaign trail against Peter King, who stood as an independent, in Wentworth during the 2004 election.

The unlikely line-up of would-be candidates for Malcolm Turnbull’s prized Sydney seat of Wentworth is causing some heartaches for Liberal Party heavyweights, with Mr Turnbull’s sworn political enemy, Peter King, considering a run at the Liberal party preselection for the seat.

Mr King, who was famously ousted by Mr Turnbull as the sitting Liberal member for Wentworth in 2004, went on to stand against Mr Turnbull in the seat as an independent.

But while senior Liberal Party sources regard Mr King as ­“electoral poison”, there are fears he could emerge as a damaging magnet for protest votes for Liberals furious at Mr Turnbull’s ­ousting. “Now, 14 years later and in his late 60s, King wants to stand for Wentworth again, I mean people couldn’t believe his chutzpah,” one senior Liberal Party insider told The Australian last night.

Peter King listens in the gallery in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber at Parliament House last week. Picture: Kym Smith

An 11th-hour tilt for Wentworth by rising star Andrew Bragg this week appears to have sidelined the previously favoured Liberal candidate, the former Australian ambassador to Israel David Sharma.

It is understood Mr Sharma is now contemplating whether he should bow out of the preselection process, given the support for Mr Bragg by party heavyweights, including Mr ­Turnbull.

Mr Sharma is also currently living outside the electorate, on Sydney’s upper north shore.

Mr Bragg is the former leader of the Yes same-sex marriage vote campaign and president of the Paddington branch of the party.

He resigned on Tuesday from his role at the Business Council of Australia, telling colleagues his immediate focus would be to fight for the seat of Wentworth.

Some local Liberal Party operatives have expressed dismay at Christine Forster’s decision to nominate to run.

They said the nomination by Ms Forster, the sister of former prime minister Tony Abbott, “went down like a lead ­balloon”.

“It’s probably unfair to Christine but anyone who has had the surname Abbott is going to find it exceedingly difficult, if not ­impossible, to be taken seriously,” a Liberal operative said.

A ReachTEL poll of 886 Wentworth residents on Monday night found the Liberals’ primary vote has plunged from 62 to 39 per cent, The Daily Telegraph reports today.

Former Liberal Party federal director Andrew Bragg is tipped to gain preselection for Malcolm Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth. Picture: AAP

Australia Institute executive director Ben Oquist, who commissioned the poll, said the two-party-preferred figure was 50-50 between the Liberal Party and an independent.

But at least one of the possible independent candidates polled, Alex Greenwich, subseqently ruled out running.

Insiders say a meeting of Wentworth Liberals on Monday night was packed with “several hundred” Turnbull supporters.

Under preselection rules, nominees and party ­officials are forbidden from commenting publicly.