Queensland LNP president Gary Spence urges MPs to topple Malcolm Turnbull for Peter Dutton

Queensland Liberal National president Gary Spence has urged federal MPs to topple Malcolm Turnbull and install Peter Dutton.

PM Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton attending a Refugee Week Event at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Queensland Liberal National president Gary Spence has privately urged federal MPs to topple Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister and replace him with Peter Dutton.

Mr Dutton, who holds the Queensland marginal seat of Dickson, is seen by some as the Coalition’s best bet to repel Labor in the battleground state — where the government will defend eight marginal seats at the next election.

A switch to Mr Dutton could bring other Labor-held seats into play such as the knife-edge Townsville-based seat of Herbert, held by first-term MP Cathy O’Toole, and Kennedy, held since 1993 by crossbencher Bob Katter.

Mr Spence refused to comment when contacted today. However The Australian has established that he has expressed this view privately to some MPs.

LNP State President Gary Spence.

Mr Dutton’s seat of Dickson, in Brisbane’s outer north, is held by a margin of 2 per cent, and borders other marginal such as Petrie, Longman and Lilley.

Other Queensland LNP marginals include seats such as the Rockhampton-based Capricornia, Gladstone-based Flynn, Mackay-based Dawson and Cairns-based Leichhardt. Forde and Bonner, on Brisbane’s south side, are also marginal.

Mr Dutton’s reputation as a hard-liner could harm the Coalition in other Queensland seats such as inner-city Brisbane, held by Liberal MP Trevor Evans, and Griffith, which Labor’s Terri Butler holds by a 1.4 per cent margin.

Both Griffith and Ryan, in Brisbane’s inner-north, are coveted by the Queensland Greens, who last year shocked the LNP by defeating shadow treasurer Scott Emerson at last year’s state election.

Mr Dutton could improve his chances of holding his marginal seat of Dickson if he successfully challenges Malcolm Turnbull, a political expert told The Australian.

But Paul Williams, a long-time political scientist at Griffith University, said a Queensland coup could potentially hurt the ­Coalition in other states at the next federal election.

“It’s not a good place for a man to start his prime ministerial ­career,” Dr Williams said, “(but) if he could seize the leadership of the Liberal Party, that might actually help him (in Dickson).

Mr Dutton, 47, has already hired former state Liberal director Geoffrey Greene to run his ­campaign in Dickson, where his Labor opponent, former journalist and disabilities advocate Ali France, has been on the hustings for five months.

Veteran campaigner Geoffrey Greene, a former state Liberal ­director in Queensland and South Australia, is orchestrating Mr Dutton’s defence of Dickson.

Polling, commissioned by the LNP in Dickson in June, indicates that Mr Dutton would hold the seat by 52 to 48 per cent of the two party-preferred vote.