Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has praised a former Liberal senator who quit the party in disgust at the behaviour of some current MPs.

Hollie Hughes, who was booted from her winnable spot on the party’s NSW senate ticket ahead of the May federal election, tendered her resignation from the Liberals on Tuesday.

“There are some people who are completely inept, who are lazy, who are not across the details,” she told 2GB radio.

“It is an absolute rabble.”

In a Facebook post later on Tuesday, Hughes said she would do her best to support Ley from outside the party.

Ley faced a barrage of questions about her former colleague’s resignation on Wednesday morning.

“Hollie is a dear friend,” she told Nine’s Today show.

“Her statement clearly speaks to the warmth of our friendship,” she added, while refusing to be drawn on Hughes’ criticisms of her colleagues.

Hughes, a former shadow minister, now owns a pub in the NSW central-west.

As infighting over climate change, energy and immigration policy threatens to topple Ley’s leadership, one of the Liberals’ most senior moderate senators urged his colleagues not to walk away from the party altogether.

Members have widely viewed Ley’s decision last week to abandon a policy of net-zero emissions by 2050 as a major concession to conservative factions and the Nationals.

On Tuesday, Senator Andrew Bragg warned about the “fragmentation of the centre right” on climate change policy, urging Liberal members who disagree with dumping the 2050 target to stay within the fold.

“This outcome is not a reason to walk away from the party,” he said.

“The Liberal Party has a long history of cleaning up Labor’s mess, and there’s no doubt we will be forced to do it again when it comes to energy, regardless of what policy we are eventually elected upon.”

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has urged members unhappy with the party’s climate policy to stay. Photo: AAP

Meanwhile, a new Liberal fight is brewing over immigration, with the party’s conservative flank pushing for dramatic cuts to Australia’s migrant intake.

A newspaper report on Wednesday suggested the Coalition would not set a formal immigration target until closer to the next federal election, but a conflicting report said the party would cut net annual migration by about 100,000.

Asked about that number, Ley said her figure would be released “in time”.

“The net overseas migration rate now is 100,000 higher than it was pre-Covid,” she said.

Ley also warned the party needed to be careful about where it cut the migrant intake to avoid affecting the critical supply of skilled workers from overseas.

-AAP