Former prime minister Tony Abbott has warned the Liberal Party not to change its stance on asylum seekers or Islamic State for fear of losing ground to far-right parties.

Mr Abbott told News Corp that centre-right parties, like the Liberals, risk losing votes to such fringe parties if it ‘softened’ on these issues.

“Since the change in leadership our base have been on heightened alert for signs of softening in our stance on boat arrivals or the need to ­defeat the global Islamic ­insurgency,” he said, according to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.

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“So far they see continuity in policy and are not flirting with more extreme alternatives.”

Mr Abbott said that no “serious senior conservative figure” had tried to create a new party to combat Islamic extremism yet, therefore he wasn’t “too concerned” that the Australian Liberty Alliance, for example, would make “inroads into our base”.

“The best way to secure Australia’s borders and to ­defeat Islamic terrorism is to elect stable, sensible centre-right parties. Single-issue fringe parties actually risk ­undermining stable centre-right parties.”

The United Patriots Front, a group widely perceived as racist, will launch its political arm, the Fortitude Party, on February 13.

In September 2015, there were also rumours the Liberal Party’s ultra-conservative Senator Cory Bernardi would form his own party, as he was furious at Mr Abbott losing the Prime Ministership.

Some have characterised Mr Abbott’s public comments since he was deposed in September 2015 as a campaign to be reinstated to the nation’s top job.

Mr Abbott has written a series of opinion pieces and given speeches championing his policy record and conservative stance on issues like IS, same-sex marriage and border protection.