“It is a well-established standard in the Westminster system that, if a member of the shadow cabinet is unwilling to live by the convention of solidarity, they must depart to the backbench.

He told her in a phone call that he “would be unable to comply” with the “longstanding and well-understood requirement” of shadow cabinet solidarity and would therefore be resigning his position, Ley said.

Ley said Hastie told her he could not comply with shadow cabinet solidarity, but did not raise any policy matters. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

“Mr Hastie did not raise any matters relating to policy on this call,” she said.

Hastie said Ley deserved the opportunity to lead “unencumbered by interventions from shadow cabinet colleagues” as the coalition built out its policy platform for the next election.