Former Liberal leader Andrew Peacock has revealed he hopes Malcolm Turnbull remains in the top job, even as Barnaby Joyce urges the Prime Minister to “do the honourable thing” and step aside if the government’s fortunes do not improve by Christmas.

Reached at his home in Austin, Texas, Mr Peacock, a moderate Liberal, said he held Mr Turnbull in high regard.

“Let me just say this, I have great admiration for the Prime Minister,” he told The New Daily exclusively.

“I have the highest respect for the Prime Minister and I hope he remains the Prime Minister.”

It was the first time Mr Peacock had remarked on the performance of the government since 2016.

Mr Peacock served as opposition leader between 1983-85 and 1989-90 during the Hawke years, battling internal leadership tensions with the party’s conservative flank, and its leader, John Howard.

He knows well how bitter and bloody the fights for Liberal leadership can be.

In 1989, he famously led a shock coup that rolled Mr Howard, in what the ABC’s Four Corners described at the time as “one of the most professional political operations seen in the party in some years” that “caught almost every political commentator by surprise”.

In a twist of fate, Mr Howard nominated him as US ambassador in 1997, an appointment that eventually led to him choosing “the wilds of Texas” as his home in retirement.

While he was happy to praise the current leader, Mr Peacock would not be drawn on the conduct of Tony Abbott, who has run a media blitz curiously timed to coincide with Mr Turnbull’s historic 30th Newspoll loss.

“I can’t comment on that,” Mr Peacock told The New Daily.

“I am in the wilds of Texas. All of that stuff doesn’t make page 35 in a 34-page newspaper.”

Back home in Australia, events were just as wild.

On the day the Turnbull government lost its 30th consecutive Newspoll, Mr Joyce broke ranks to demand the Prime Minister “do the honourable thing” if the government’s fortunes did not improve by year’s end.

Mr Joyce, who resigned after a bitter feud with his leader over his affair with a staffer, said Mr Turnbull should consider making way if the poor polling continued through until Christmas.

Barnaby Joyce has set a Christmas deadline for Malcolm Turnbull to consider stepping aside if things don’t improve. Photo: ABC

“Nobody wants to go to a federal election which you know you’re going to lose. It’s like playing in the losing grand final – no one wants to play in the losing side,” he told Sky News. 

“You have an obligation to all around you that if you honestly believe that is the case, then you must do something about it and do the honourable thing and start grooming an alternative.

“Now we are a long, long way from that at the moment. But if I said ‘Oh well, no one ever considers it, everything is fine’, well, that is also not telling the truth.”

Mr Joyce, a National Party MP, does not have a vote to decide the leader of the Liberals.

Meanwhile, senior ministers Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg joined Peter Dutton in revealing they all harboured leadership ambitions – while still careful to pledge loyalty to their current boss.

“Now, down the future if an opportunity presented itself, but not while Malcolm Turnbull’s the Prime Minister because he’s the right Prime Minister to lead our party, not just to this election but beyond,” Mr Morrison told ABC 7.30.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she did not “envisage” a situation where she might challenge.

It followed Mr Turnbull’s attempt to dismiss and deflect the 30th Newspoll loss. He admitted regret in setting that benchmark for leadership failure, and argued he succeeded in restoring economic leadership and traditional cabinet processes.

And then there was Mr Abbott.

Riding through Victoria’s coal heartland of the Latrobe Valley for the Pollie Pedal, the former prime minister denied he was preparing a challenge.

“If I’ve got something to say, I don’t ring up a journalist and whisper poison into their ears,” he told 2GB.

“I say it up front, openly, and put my name on it.”

But former Liberal leader John Hewson told The New Daily that Mr Abbott was choosing not to be a team player, saying his pledge of “no sniping” had proved to be a “pretty short-lived commitment”.

Mr Turnbull remained the best person to lead the Coalition and his position was “reasonably secure” because of the lack of any “obvious heir apparent”, Mr Hewson said.

“He looks like a leader, he sounds like a leader, he’s just not leading.”