Senior Liberals distance themselves from PM's decision to demote Philip Ruddock

Senior Liberals have distanced themselves from Tony Abbott’s decision to dump chief whip Philip Ruddock, who the prime minister has blamed for failing to keep him aware of backbench concerns about his leadership.

Deputy leader Julie Bishop said the prime minister had many methods for keeping in touch with government members – effectively distancing herself from the decision to remove Ruddock in favour of Queensland MP Scott Buchholz and Abbott loyalist Andrew Nikolic.

“The prime minister has many avenues open to him to engage with the backbench, the whip’s office is one of them,” said Bishop.

Social services minister Scott Morrison said the decision to change the whip was a matter for the prime minister but heaped high praise on Ruddock who, as the longest serving MP, is known as the father of the house.

“They are matters for the prime minister, all I know about Philip Ruddock is he is the greatest immigration minister we’ve ever had,” said Morrison.

“I know he took on that job as chief whip at the request of the PM. I don’t think he was hanging around in the parliament for 40 years to become the chief whip. He’s a very loyal, a very trusted and a very respected colleague.”

The whip’s role is to keep in touch with all party members and ensure they vote according to party policy on the floor of parliament. Ruddock traditionally came from the moderate end of the NSW Liberal party, although his implementation of the Howard government’s mandatory detention policies were controversial. However he remains a mentor for Liberal MPs across the spectrum and a number have expressed concerns at his demotion, given Abbott’s pledge there would be no retribution following the spill motion.

On Sunday, Abbott blamed Ruddock not being kept abreast of backbench concerns which led to the spill motion a week ago – a vote Abbott narrowly won by 61 votes to 39.

“Well, plainly, I wasn’t as aware as I should have been of all of this,” Abbott told conservative commentator Andrew Bolt.

“I never want to find myself in this position ever again. And I’m confident that with the whip’s team we’ve got, I will be very much aware of what’s going on inside the party.”

Ruddock has refused to comment, apart from suggesting he would have expected the prime minister to raise with him any concerns he had about the way he was doing the job.