Favoured Wentworth candidate living outside Malcolm Turnbull’s seat

With Malcolm Turnbull to quit this week, the ex-ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma is set to win preselection in Wentworth.

Lucy Turnbull with Dave Sharma, who is expected to win preselection in Wentworth.

Malcolm Turnbull will quit parliament this week, setting up a Wentworth by-election expected to be held on October 6.

Mr Turnbull has told senior colleagues he will quit the parliament on Friday.

“I’ve had a great team in federal parliament and a great team here at Wentworth,” the former prime minister told a party gathering at Easts Rugby club on Monday night, Fairfax Media reported last night.

“But as you know, my prime ministership has come to an end. The circumstances have appalled most Australians but again, I won’t labour the point.

“I have a strong view which I’ve made very clear publicly so it comes as no surprise, that former prime ministers are best out of parliament not in it, and I think recent events best underline the value of that observation. And so, accordingly, on Friday, I will resign from the House of Representatives.”

Nominations will open today and close on September 3, with the by-election date to be formally set by parliamentary Speaker Tony Smith after Mr Turnbull resigns.

Former Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma is said to be in the box seat for preselection, ­despite the fact he is living in Paul Fletcher’s north shore seat of Bradfield in another part of the city.

Mr Turnbull holds the seat by 17.5 per cent so the Liberal Party would believe it can still hang on there, despite the turmoil of the past week in Canberra.

Mr Sharma, Australia’s youngest ambassador, is being backed by the moderates faction in the seat but faces a challenge from the former leader of the Yes same-sex marriage vote campaign, Andrew Bragg, president of the Paddington branch of the party. Mr Bragg, who works for the Business Council of Australia, is seen as someone who could get the backing of the retiring Mr Turnbull.

Malcolm Turnbull wife Lucy. Picture: Sean Davey

Another expected to get some numbers in any preselection bout is the former member for Wentworth, Peter King, whom Mr Turnbull knocked off with a bitter branch-stacking campaign in 2003.

Yesterday, Mr Turnbull’s son-in-law James Brown, the president of the NSW branch of the RSL, announced on Twitter that he would not be running for the seat.

Others expected to contest the seat are Woollahra councillor Katherine O’Regan, and the perennial candidate, City of Sydney councillor and Tony Abbott’s ­sister, Christine Forster.