Tony Abbott has dismissed as made-up a report he told right-wing allies in Britain he thinks he has a reasonable chance of returning as prime minister
Fairfax Media reported a senior Liberal source close to Mr Abbott as saying the former prime minister maintained a "good chance" of returning to the job because he is popular with the party membership compared to Malcolm Turnbull.
But Mr Abbott took to Twitter to reject the claim: "As for unsourced, unattributed, unprofessional reports, the journalist in question is yet again making things up."
The report also cited the source as saying the outcome of the NSW State Council of the Liberal Party on October 22 was an important opportunity for Mr Abbott to showcase his strength with the wider membership.
There he will be pushing for democratic reforms of the party.
Before he took to social media, Mr Abbott refused to answer when asked if he wanted the leadership back during a sideline event at the Conservative Party Conference in the UK on Tuesday night (local time).
Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney: "I'm not going to be drawn on interesting gossip or even uninteresting gossip."
