Libby Mettam survives vote and vows the Liberal party will be stronger despite Neil Thomson going to backbench

Libby Mettam has defiantly stared down a Liberal party coup that launched without a declared challenger, failed to lift-off and backfired to strengthen her leadership. Before dawn on Tuesday, after an opinion poll published in The West Australian predicted an election wipe-out in March, Ms Mettam demanded the “gutless little cowards in the shadows” reveal themselves and triggered crisis talks to “have my leadership tested”. She survived the vote and declared the party-room united. Shadow Treasurer Neil Thomson was the only scalp after the two-hour meeting, announcing he would quit the Opposition frontbench “forthwith” after registering the only confirmed vote against Ms Mettam. He moved a motion to appoint Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas the party’s “campaign leader” instead of Ms Mettam. The motion was seconded by Shadow Justice Minister Tjorn Sibma, but he did not speak for it and the motion failed, leaving Ms Mettam to emerge with a clear majority of support to remain leader. “The motion was resoundingly opposed,” Ms Mettam told reporters afterwards. “I gave my colleagues an opportunity to move a motion of no confidence in my leadership, no one supported that motion.” Mr Thomson said he “respected” the outcome. “It wasn’t my position going into the partyroom but I respect the decision of the partyroom going forward and will do everything I can to support the party towards the March state election, from the backbench.” Ms Mettam extended an olive branch and said she wanted him to reconsider that decision, during a sit-down interview with The West Australian. “His intentions were honourable,” she said. She maintained Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal candidate for Churchlands Basil Zempilas is an “outstanding” and “crucial” part of the Liberal election team. “Basil has only pledged allegiance to me, 100% support,” she said. But there was no peace offering for the mystery businessman who funded the Sodali and Co poll. “It would be of benefit to the people of Western Australia for the individual businessman to come forward, who commissioned the poll,” she said. “Put up or shut up, it’s quite simple.” The poll was funded by the un-named business investor but commissioned by Ammo Marketing, whose director was previously a campaign manager for Mr Zempilas. “It was not for Basil, it was for our client,” director Cam Sinclair said. “We do work for a rage of conservative groups around WA and need to respect client expectations to keep their work confidential.” Ms Mettam also laid blame at Federal Liberal candidate Ben Small, who confronted her with the poll findings more than two weeks ago. “”We must now be united and focus on a failed Labor Government and those who have been behind the shadows must now focus their efforts on getting behind me as leader,” she said. “I’m talking about the mischief that has been made behind the scenes to sources who have no name.” Mr Small, the candidate for Forrest, confirmed his involvement on Tuesday afternoon. “I was presented with polling research by a business investor,” he said. “I have sought to protect the interests of the Liberal Party in not distributing the polling to anyone except Libby Mettam. The Party has today made its position very clear in support of Libby’s leadership and I wholeheartedly support that outcome.” The outcome was not clear when 10 Liberal MP’s filed into State Parliament on Tuesday morning, in the wake of the poll that warned the primary vote in 14 key metropolitan seats could slump to 31 per cent. Ms Mettam rejected the findings as “flawed and clearly biased” but Liberal MLC Steve Thomas was hedging his bets before 7am. “That sounds tough but I’ll sit down and read it,” he said. “There’s a meeting that’s been called this morning, we’ll have a discussion about it I hope and hopefully that’s a full and open and frank discussion. “I’ll try and work out what the best thing is for the Liberal Party going forward.” Outgoing Cottesloe MP David Honey voiced his support, 22 months after Ms Mettam’s challenge forced him to resign as Liberal Leader. “I am absolutely proud to stand beside Libby Mettam, she is a fantastic person,” he said. But Labor was eager to seize on signs of division, before and during question time in Parliament. “Three months to go, we have never seen more chaos in an Opposition before an election,” Housing Minister John Carey said. “I don’t think anyone will believe that Basil Zempilas didn’t know what was going on, what we do know is Basil is always about Basil.” Premier Roger Cook declared the Liberals a “broken” mess. “Quite frankly they’re shambolic, they’re broken and they can’t even agree with themselves,” he said. “I don’t care who is leading the Liberal Party, I’m focused on the policies of the Labor party.” One source inside the two-hour long Liberal partyroom meeting on Tuesday described it as “fiery”, but Ms Mettam emerged with clear majority support. She insisted the March election remains winnable. “We are united, we are positive about our future,” she said. “We can always do better.” Deputy Liberal Leader Steve Martin said he “absolutely” believes the party can win more seats under Ms Mettam, than potential future leader Mr Zempilas. “I can give you a cast iron guarantee, we’re completely united around winning as many seats as we possibly can at the next election,” he said. “The people of Western Australia deserve that promise and that’s my guarantee to all of you.”