Senior Liberal MP Angus Taylor has confirmed that the party had been left with “no choice” but to vote on the leadership in order to put an end to all the damaging rumours he started about voting on the leadership.

Speaking at a press conference he organised, leaked, and then confirmed, Taylor said the constant speculation had become untenable.

“The constant chatter that I’ve been cultivating about a spill is creating uncertainty. And so the only responsible course of action now is to have a spill to stop this chatter once and for all,” he said.

“For weeks now, Australians have woken up to headlines about a possible leadership challenge. They deserve a country where they wake up to headlines about an actual leadership challenge.”

He said that what the party needed now was unity. “And the best way to achieve unity is to knife the party’s first female leader and replace her with me.”

He rejected suggestions he could simply stop talking about a spill. “With respect, that’s naive,” he said. “You can’t just turn off instability like a tap. Once you’ve carefully built the narrative, nurtured it, fed it quotes, and ensured it trends for several news cycles, it takes decisive leadership to shut it down. Which is what I intend to do.”