The former New South Wales premier Nick Greiner warned the Liberal federal executive that burying a review of the 2025 election defeat risked backlash from party members and in the media, exposing further internal splits over the move.

As details of the report start to leak – despite the decision to keep them secret – Guardian Australia can reveal Greiner raised concerns about suppressing the report during Friday’s meeting of the party’s top decision-making body.

Greiner, a Liberal party elder, sits on the federal executive as the head of a committee in charge of the NSW division. His warnings were confirmed by three sources with knowledge of the meeting’s discussions.

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The executive’s decision to shelve the report by Pru Goward and Nick Minchin into the party’s worst election defeat has angered some MPs, who fear the secrecy could cause more internal damage than the findings would have if released.

Goward and Minchin have both publicly expressed disappointment at the decision, backed by the majority of attenders at Friday’s meeting.

“This will become a monster,” said one senior Liberal of the decision.

Gisele Kapterian, who narrowly lost the seat of Bradfield at last year’s election, said it “doesn’t do anyone any favours to keep this report under wraps”.

“I think it would be made much easier for a holistic strategy to be put in place if we had that report come to light for everybody,” she told the ABC.

Guardian Australia has not seen the review but has spoken to five Liberal sources who have either read or been briefed on the findings, which include an assessment that 2025 was the worst campaign the Liberal party had fought.

The review was scheduled for release prior to Christmas, but was delayed after the former leader Peter Dutton raised concerns about some of the findings against him and his chief-of-staff, including their relationship with the campaign’s head office.

The sources confirmed the review was scathing of Dutton and his team, and it recommended that the Liberals’ parliamentary leader never again be allowed to effectively sideline the party’s head office and run the campaign themselves.

Dutton was among the Liberal MPs who lost their seat after a disastrous campaign that was undercut by policy mistakes, damaging comparisons with Donald Trump’s “Maga” movement and a thin economic agenda that included a promise to reverse income tax cuts.

The sources confirmed the findings also reflected poorly on current party leader, Angus Taylor and his deputy, Jane Hume, who as shadow treasurer and shadow finance minister are responsible for the Coalition’s economic agenda.

Taylor was involved in the decision to oppose Labor’s tax cuts, while Hume was the flag-bearer for the disastrous work-from-home policy, which Dutton dumped during the election campaign. Hume’s comment about “Chinese spies” was also blamed for swinging votes against the Liberals in seats with significant Chinese Australian populations.

Taylor and Hume are both members of the Liberal federal executive.

Asked to explain the rationale for suppressing the review, Taylor said the Liberal party needed to “look forwards, not backwards”.

“(There has been) A whole lot of finger pointing at this point about the election, which we know was a bad outcome. We know there’s much to be learned from it,” Taylor said, making light of the leaks.

Greiner was contacted for comment.