Sussan Ley to lead the Liberal Party

The Farrer MP is the first woman to lead the 81-year-old party.

The Liberal Party has voted to elect its first ever female leader in New South Wales MP Sussan Ley.

The former deputy party leader and cabinet minister in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments has defeated conservative NSW MP Angus Taylor by just four votes.

The vote tally – 29 for Ms Ley and 25 for Mr Taylor – shows a divided party room unsure whether to forge towards a more centrist approach espoused by Ms Ley to win back urban voters or veer further to the right and back the joint Taylor-Jacinta Price leadership ticket.

Sussan Ley will become the Coalition’s first female leader. Picture: NewsWire / David Beach

Mr Taylor’s failed bid led Nationals defector Ms Price not to run for the deputy position. In a move that shocked her Nationals colleagues, Ms Price revealed on Sunday she would quit the party to contest the Liberal Party leadership as Mr Taylor’s deputy.

The two nominees for deputy were Queensland MPs Ted O’Brien and Phil Thompson, with Mr O’Brien the clear favourite, winning 38 votes to Mr Thompson’s 16.

Queensland MP Andrew Wallace said the result demonstrated the party was “listening to the people of Australia and learning. I’m very pleased to be part of that. It’s time to rebuild and get on with it.”

The result is particularly historic for the Liberal Party, which hasn’t voted for a female leader in its 81-year-old history or a regional MP since Malcolm Fraser almost half a century ago.

The Farrer MP will now have to work alongside David Littleproud, who was re-elected as the Nationals’ leader having defeated Matt Canavan in a vote on Monday.

The Nationals’ vote largely hinged on whether the party room supported Mr Canavan’s bid to ditch climate change commitments towards net zero emissions.

Both Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud said the Coalition’s policies would be revisited following their shocking electoral defeat, including a controversial nuclear energy policy to build seven reactors that voters appeared to reject.