Malcolm Turnbull says Liberals feared he would win an election

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that he was ousted by his fellow Liberal colleagues in a leadership spill because they feared that he would win the next election.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Turnbull blamed his demise on the ā€œinternal politics of the Liberal Partyā€, adding that there was a ā€œform of madnessā€ in the air that was provoked both within the party and by ā€œvoices in the media,ā€

He said that ā€œyou could argue that their concern was not that Iā€™d lose the election but rather that Iā€™d win it.ā€

BBC host Andrew Neil challenged Mr Turnbullā€™s claim, saying that it was ā€œnot credibleā€ and citing the fact the Government was trailing behind the opposition 40 polls in a row.

Mr Turnbull defended his statement, saying that his government had a ā€œlevel peggingā€ in polls. He said that ā€œin terms of determining government, we were ahead,ā€

Mr Turnbull also said that his replacement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was in a ā€œworse positionā€ now than when the leadership spill took place. He said that ā€œnormally when you replace a leader, you replace the unpopular personā€ with a candidate ā€œwho is much more popular and gives you a chance of winning,ā€

He said that the party was now polling worse than it was when he left office and that ā€œyou canā€™t deny thatā€™s a fact.ā€

Mr Turnbullā€™s former colleagues did not seem to express much of a reaction to the comments, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann calling it ā€œancient historyā€ and Defence Minister Christopher Pyne saying that the former PM could say whatever he wished to.

During his interview, Mr Turnbull said that ā€œIā€™m always interested in politics but I wonā€™t be engaging in the partisan, political battle,ā€ and that ā€œIā€™m a Liberal, no question about that, but Iā€™ve retired from politics.ā€

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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