Former Coalition frontbencher Amanda Vanstone has launched an extraordinary attack on Tony Abbott, describing the former prime minister as a “narcissist” and accusing him of breaking his promise that there would be no “sniping” of the Turnbull government.

Ms Vanstone made the comments on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program after Mr Abbott was slammed by his Coalition colleagues over a speech he made criticising the direction of the government.

“How low can you go when you make a speech saying I’m not going to snipe unlike Gillard and then hop on the phone and organise for a group of people to meet regularly and do the sniping,” Ms Vanstone, a former minister in the Howard government, told Sunrise. 

“The truth is out. He has no support. People see him for what he is, a narcissist, and it’s always been about Tony from the minute he was born.”

Whoa! @amandavanstone slaps down @TonyAbbottMHR #sun7 pic.twitter.com/9NXf1fr1wq

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) February 28, 2017

Asked about media speculation on disunity within the government, Ms Vanstone said it was true there was frustration among some in the Liberal Party.

“Is it a media concoction, no it is not. The discontent is contained in a small section of the people to the right of the Liberal Party then towards the centre,” she said.

“The media is right to cover it. Perhaps it got out of perspective, that might be true. If you are a guy who got a job in a factory and are having a beer and you look in the newspaper or the TV, you might think this was a big story because of the coverage that gets. But, Abbott is not going to come back.”

On Monday, Malcolm Turnbull blamed Mr Abbott for a poor polling result that saw the Coalition now trailing Labor 45-55 two-party preferred terms.

“What we saw was an outburst on Thursday and it had its desired impact on the Newspoll, it was exactly as predicted and calculated,” he said.