Nats pondered by-election run without Barnaby Joyce

As rumours about Barnaby Joyce swirled, the Nats considered the prospect of a New ­England by-election without him.

Barnaby Joyce with a National Party volunteer during the New England by-election campaign.

Nationals party officials considered the prospect of a New ­England by-election campaign without Barnaby Joyce because of rumours about his relationship with Vikki Campion.

Prior to the High Court decision on October 27 finding Mr Joyce had a right to dual citizenship, triggering the New England by-election, concerns were raised at a NSW Nationals executive meeting about whether Mr Joyce was conducting an affair with his staffer and, if he was, whether he should retire if the High Court found against him. “(The discussion) was on whether … there was a relationship and what effect it could have on his candidacy,” a source said.

The rumour Ms Campion was pregnant was also raised by ­party officials with Mr Joyce during the campaign and he is said to have sidestepped the issue.

During the campaign, discussions at the party’s executive level centred around concerns for Mr Joyce’s “mental state”, another source said. “He was extremely ­depressed and that needed to be managed,” a source said.

Labor is understood to have carried out focus-group polling on whether to raise the issue of Mr Joyce’s private life and how this would play out in the campaign. The result was an emphatic “no”, with voters rejecting such a move.

As it turned out, accusations against Mr Joyce were aired during the campaign, including on the Independent Australia website, ­including the rumour that a staffer of his was pregnant.

His former opponent for the seat of New England, Tony Windsor, also had weighed in on ­Twitter. In November, he tweeted: “More poor judgment from Turnbull, he knows the time bomb Joyce is sitting on ... Turnbull’s ­office were informed in 2015. Turnbull went berserk when Joyce told him of citizenship position and personal issues on same day.”

In October, Mr Windsor had tweeted about Mr Joyce’s marriage and also questioned his views on abortion. On October 20, a week before the High Court decision, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph reported Mr Joyce had “for months struggled with issues that have ­affected his marriage of 24 years” and “could leave him vulnerable” in a by-election.

Despite the rumours, Mr Joyce won the by-election with a swing towards him. Internal polling ­before the campaign had him in front of Mr Windsor by 58 per cent to 16 per cent.

Mr Windsor did not run and Mr Joyce gained 64.9 per cent of the primary vote — a 12.6 per cent swing to him — and won on a two-party-preferred basis by 73.6 per cent to 26.4 per cent.

During an interview with The Daily Telegraph during the campaign, Mr Joyce, when asked whether he had considered not running, said: “Of course … I thought about it. I think you should always think about all alternatives in any decision that you make, and I certainly thought about that alternative. I put it aside, I fired up, got going again.”

Asked whether he had in mind the welfare of his wife, Natalie, and their four daughters at the time, Mr Joyce said: “You want straight answers and I want to give you straight answers, but not to go ­unnecessarily into my ­private life.”