Angus Taylor has resigned from shadow cabinet and is expected to challenge Sussan Ley for the Liberal leadership, declaring the party is in the “worst position” since its formation in 1944.

Taylor announced Wednesday evening he was resigning from shadow cabinet, the first step in an expected bid to depose the party’s first female leader after just nine months.

“I don’t believe Sussan Ley is in a position to be able to lead the party as it needs to be led,” he said in an evening press conference.

“What we need right now is strong leadership, clear direction and a courageous focus on our values, and the first two priorities … should be protecting our way of life and restoring our standard of living.”

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Other senior allies are expected to follow suit in quitting the frontbench, putting pressure on Ley to call a party room meeting for either Thursday or Friday to resolve the leadership.

Under party conventions, two or more Liberals MPs can request a special party room meeting to consider a motion to spill the leadership.

If a majority of MPs support the spill motion, a secret ballot then determines the leader.

The 59-year-old’s announcement was widely expected after days of speculation that the shadow defence minister would use a horror Newspoll and internal ructions from latest Coalition split as triggers to challenge Ley.

The moderate-aligned Ley defeated the conservative Taylor 29 votes to 25 to win the leadership after the 2025 election.

While the two camps are confident their candidate has majority support of the 51-member party room, both admit the numbers are tight.

Ley’s leadership has been viewed as terminal after the Coalition split for the second time under her watch, with senior Liberals believing her fate would be sealed as soon as Taylor and fellow rightwinger Andrew Hastie resolved which of them would run.

Hastie pulled out of the race on 30 January after secret talks with rightwing powerbrokers in Melbourne, leaving the Hume MP with a clear run.

Ley negotiated a deal to reunite the Coalition on Sunday but some MPs believed the concessions granted to the Nationals had damaged her credibility and shifted crucial voters to Taylor, even as he had lobbied for a reunion.

Taylor had refused to confirm his intentions and has continued to attend shadow cabinet and meetings of Ley’s Liberal leadership team, including on Wednesday morning.

Taylor made no mention of his immediate challenge at Wednesday’s meeting, according to sources.

Conservatives and moderates grew increasingly frustrated over the course of Wednesday as Taylor delayed an announcement.

“I think the speculation is unhelpful because it’s robbing us of oxygen to hold the government to account,” Ben Small, a member of Taylor’s right faction, told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

The opposition leader’s allies have pushed for Ley to insist that Taylor’s backers put their names to a petition for a spill, replicating a tactic Malcolm Turnbull used to stall Peter Dutton’s attempted coup in 2018.

In 2018, Turnbull demanded that Dutton’s supporters present him with the names of the majority of the party room to justifying holding a second leadership spill in a matter of days.

“We’re not paid to play games, tiddly winks. We’re paid to work hard for the Australian people. If people want to do something, they should put their name to it,” the Liberal senator and moderate powerbroker, Andrew Bragg, said.

MPs have also discussed replacing deputy leader Ted O’Brien, with senator Jane Hume and Goldstein MP Tim Wilson among the names mentioned internally.

Hume this week warned the party would be “wiped out” without an urgent change in direction after a Newspoll published on Monday showed the Coalition’s primary vote had collapsed to 18%, nine percentage points below One Nation.

The Victorian senator is a moderate but supported Taylor in the last leadership ballot, infuriating her factional allies and contributing to her sacking from shadow cabinet.

More details soon …