Downer has whack at Abbott as pair square off for plum Liberal Party role

Former Liberal leader Alexander Downer has taken a jab Tony Abbott, suggesting the former prime minister might use the party presidency to push conservative causes.

Abbott’s supporters claim he will easily win a vote to become Liberal president, overriding concerns he will be “shadow opposition leader” and steal the spotlight from Angus Taylor.

Taylor wants Abbott in the job, as revealed by this masthead on Wednesday, so that he can inject energy and ideas into the party that is bleeding votes, money and volunteers to One Nation.

Sources with knowledge of the numbers in the 113-person federal council said the conservatives had about 70 of those votes sewn up for Abbott before a vote at the end of the month.

Party moderates will back Downer, but none were prepared to speak on the record when called by this masthead. Downer has never been associated with the faction but is seen as the better option for those who view Abbott as radical.

Downer told Sky News on Thursday evening that the presidency was an “administrative job, not a policy job”.

“I wouldn’t be going into it to promote particular policies,” he said, without naming Abbott.

He claimed, well after news of Abbott’s candidacy had broken, that, “I have no idea who else is going to run”.

Figures in the party believed former prime minister John Howard was backing Downer, who served as Howard’s foreign minister, but Howard said he would not be getting involved.

“Each would do an excellent job if chosen. They are both very close and good friends of mine and I do not intend to take sides. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong,” he said.

Taylor’s backing for Abbott means he is all but certain to get the job because the party leader’s approval is crucial.

Labor was delighted at the news that Abbott would re-enter the scene.

“This would be like us appointing Paul Keating as Labor president,” one senior minister said.

Some Coalition MPs, even on the moderate side, can see the upside of appointing Abbott to drive reform in an ailing organisation. Others, including conservatives, believe it is hugely risky to give a polarising figure such a platform.

Some right-wingers are wary that Abbott’s big media profile will mean his public remarks as president will effectively serve as official parliamentary party policy.

“He’ll be the shadow opposition leader,” one Coalition MP said.

Another pointed out that Abbott had been saying lately that Australia should be sending forces to the Middle East to assist the US and Israel in their war with Iran.

Abbott said in a statement on Thursday that “I understand and respect the different roles of the party leader and the party president, and that the president’s job is always to help the leader to win.”

“I want the Liberal Party to be the best version of itself and in any capacity at all will be striving to make Angus Taylor Australia’s 32nd prime minister.”

Federal MP and conservative factional operative Henry Pike said Abbott understood the “need for change and the importance of playing a supportive role to the broader team.”

“This is the party’s darkest hour,” Pike said. “Tony has spent years as a tireless servant of the party, travelling the country long after his parliamentary career to fundraise, mentor, encourage and back the next generation of candidates.

“We are going to need that experience, discipline and drive to get the organisation fighting fit.”

The party is going through a period of upheaval. The next president will need to appoint a new federal director, effectively the chief executive of the party, after long-serving boss Andrew Hirst announced he would step down.

The Coalition parties are bracing for a poor result at this week’s byelection in the regional seat of Farrer, which was held by former opposition leader Sussan Ley.

Liberal senator Leah Blyth, who is also president of the South Australian division, said Abbott was the party’s “strongest campaigner in two decades”.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.