Malcolm Turnbull has lost half of his cabinet’s backing and could face a leadership challenge from Peter Dutton today, a report has claimed.
Mr Dutton, the Home Affairs Minister, is still believed to be deciding whether or not to take the plunge, with the two set to come face-to-face at a crunch Liberal party meeting on at 9am.
Mr Turnbull was last night calling MPs to gather support, according to the Australian.
Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) has lost half of his cabinet’s backing as he prepares for a leadership challenge the Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton
The Prime Minister has seen his support crumble in recent days as he was forced to ditch his National Energy Guarantee (NEG) in an attempt to appease rebels in his party.
Senior political figures have said Mr Turnbull appears to be in ‘panic mode’ and to clearly ‘rattled’ about the amount of support he has lost.
However, a conservative said if Mr Dutton calls the shots and takes on the PM there will be raft of frontbench resignations.
Supporters of Mr Dutton believe the required 43 votes need to topple Mr Turnbull can be found, however the prime minister appears to still believe he has the numbers.
While several backers of Mr Dutton have admitted to a ‘wait and see approach’, nine cabinet ministers were ready to get behind the Home Affairs Minister – half of cabinet’s 18 Liberals, The Australian reported.
But Treasurer Scott Morrison said was ‘fully supportive’ of the Prime Minister.

Supporters of Peter Dutton (pictured) believe the required 43 votes can be sought to kick Turnbull from the Prime Ministerial position
‘It’s become pretty clear, it’s been a pretty torrid decade,’ he said.
‘We’ve had a great period of stability over the past three years.
‘I think this stability in our government has helped key outcomes like the strong performance we had on jobs.’
While Coalition marginal seat holders have publicly supported Mr Turnbull, some privately lobbied in favour of Mr Dutton to improve the party’s chances in Queensland.

It is believed the Australian Prime Minister began to drum up support from colleagues yesterday
Gary Spence, LNP president in Queensland, urged federal MPs to replace Mr Turnbull with Mr Dutton, arguing he would do better at defending the Coalition’s nine marginal seats in the state.
This week Mr Turnbull was hit by former prime minister Tony Abbott for his backflip on plans to legislate the Paris emissions reduction target.
Mr Abbott said: ‘It’s no way to run a government, making absolute commitments on Tuesday and breaking them on Friday.’
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce yesterday backed Mr Turnbull to remain as leader and welcomed the Government’s changes on the contentious energy policy.
He told Sky News on Monday: ‘Peter Dutton is doing a very good job, Malcolm Turnbull is doing a good job, I think people now want this to settle down.’