A review of the Liberal party’s catastrophic election defeat will be buried in a move that shields the former leader Peter Dutton and his successor Angus Taylor from potentially damaging findings about their role in the campaign.

The Liberal federal executive met on Friday and agreed to permanently shelve Pru Goward and Nick Minchin’s review of the 2025 election, which produced the worst result in the party’s more than 80-year history.

“The review recognises the party’s enduring strengths. It also sets out where processes failed, where connection with voters was lost, and where we must do better,” the party said in a statement.

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“The May 2025 election result was a decisive defeat. We accept that verdict. We also accept the responsibility to change.

“The federal executive has decided not to publish the review. What’s important now is that we strengthen our party for the future.”

The autopsy’s release was scheduled for prior to Christmas but was delayed after 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 review was commissioned under Sussan Ley and some Liberals believed Taylor would want it suppressed after winning the leadership.

Liberal sources familiar with the review confirmed the findings reflected poorly on Taylor and his deputy Jane Hume, who as a shadow treasurer and shadow finance minister were responsible for the Coalition’s thin economic agenda.

Taylor was involved in the decision to oppose Labor’s tax cuts while Hume’s 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 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.

The decision not to release the review has sparked immediate criticism from some Liberal MPs, who fear it will mean the party fails to learn from the historic defeat.

“The new leader and the new deputy never wanted this to see the light of day,” one MP said.

Three sources familiar with Friday’s meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the decision to shelve the review was about the desire for a “fresh start” not to protect Dutton, Taylor or Hume.

Some members of the executive wanted to avoid airing the party’s dirty laundry just weeks out from the South Australian election and federal by-election in Ley’s old seat of Farrer, the sources said.

One source said some members didn’t want to risk a potentially costly and embarrassing legal fight with Dutton, drawing comparisons with the John Pesutto-Moira Deeming case in Victoria.

In a column for the Australian Financial Review on Friday, Goward – a former New South Wales state minister – said it was “of deep regret” that the review would not be published.

She expressed confidence that the review would have been able to withstand legal challenge.

“Without reading the report, it will be impossible for future candidates, directors and leaders to determine why the campaign’s obvious chaos, flat-footedness and limited policy offerings occurred and how the recommendations will assist in avoiding any repetition,” she wrote.

“The review was undertaken with the best of intentions and on the clear assumption that there will always be a need for a broadly based centre-right party in politics. The party owns this report and it is not for us to divulge it. We did our job.”

Taylor’s office was contacted for comment.