The outspoken conservative Craig Kelly will remain the Liberal candidate for Hughes at the next federal election after the New South Wales party executive bowed to Scott Morrison’s wishes rather than allow the prime minister to be publicly humiliated.
Kelly chose to blow up an internal war within the Liberal party over his future by signalling last week he was prepared to go to the crossbench – following the Victorian Liberal Julia Banks – if he was dumped as the Liberal party candidate.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched a spectacular intervention in the preselection process of Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly, urging party officials not to "capitulate" to threats from the conservative MP.
Mr Turnbull has also encouraged his successor Scott Morrison to go to the polls shortly after the long summer break, arguing he and the then treasurer had been planning to call an election for March 2 before Mr Turnbull was ousted from the nation's top job.
