There is no conceivable way Kevin Andrews would replace Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, education minister Simon Birmingham has said, just hours after Andrews admitted he would think about challenging for the top job.
Andrews was dumped from the frontbench after Turnbull’s successful leadership challenge in September last year. In an article published by News Corp. on Monday, Andrews said that he was prepared to run against Turnbull if the circumstances were right.
Birmingham, a Turnbull loyalist, rejected the suggestion that the Liberal party might face another spill.
“Malcolm is the prime minister, the leader, and I don’t believe there is anybody that can foresee any circumstances in which they think he would be replaced by Kevin Andrews,” he told Sky News.
Andrews told reporters that his comments in the news article had been taken out of context, and that Turnbull was leader “at the present time”.
“I spoke to a local journalist a few weeks ago, he asked me about the past challenges and things like that and a hypothetical question to which I gave a hypothetical answer,” he said. “But the reality is that Mr Turnbull is the prime minister, he will lead us to the next election and I expect we will win the next election.”
Andrews lost a challenge to Turnbull’s leadership in 2009, when the Coalition was in opposition, 41 votes to 35.
“Back in 2009 Mr Andrews said he wanted to run for leadership and when Mr Andrews says he wants to run for leadership, you know the Liberal party is in trouble,” the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said. “Now I never thought I’d say this but maybe the Liberal party should have a look at Kevin Andrews. He couldn’t be any worse than Malcolm Turnbull’s proven to be.”
Andrews, who was loyal to former prime minister Tony Abbott, held the defence portfolio before being dumped from Turnbull’s first cabinet.
He ran against Julie Bishop as deputy Liberal leader during the September spill, but lost that ballot 30 votes to Bishop’s 70.
