Conservative Liberals Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor have met face-to-face, amid speculation of a leadership spill to oust Sussan Ley.

The rival contenders met in Melbourne on Thursday ahead of the funeral of former Liberal MP Katie Allen.

The Australian reports that right-wing powerbrokers want either Hastie or Taylor to stand aside to allow a sole challenger to Ley. Both are angling for the leadership role, but neither has publicly put their hand up to run or declare a spill motion.

Hastie and Taylor arrived at a private home in a leafy area of Melbourne on Thursday morning. Others seen entering the property were fellow Liberals James Paterson, Matt O’Sullivan and Jonno Duniam.

Earlier Paterson had told ABC radio Ley had backing in the party.

“I can’t predict what all of my colleagues may or may not do, but I can say that, in my assessment, Sussan continues to enjoy the support of the majority of the party room,” he told ABC radio.

“I understand my responsibilities under the Westminster convention. The first responsibility if you don’t support any leader is to tell them, and the second responsibility is to resign, and I haven’t done either.“So you can assume I continue to support Sussan.”

Ley has yet to name her full shadow cabinet following last week’s split with the Nationals.

A week after the Nationals walked away from the Coalition following divisions over hate speech laws, tensions remain over whether Ley will be able to stay on as opposition leader.

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Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien said he had not heard from other MPs about a possible challenge to Ley’s leadership.

“I don’t believe there’ll be a challenge next week … I’m in close contact with my colleagues,” he told ABC TV on Thursday.

“I haven’t spoken to any colleague who believes that Sussan didn’t make the right call last week. She demonstrated enormous strength and dignity in a very difficult situation with the National Party.”

O’Brien said both parties would be stronger in a coalition, but a reunion would not be expedited for the sake of it.

“We are best served by a Coalition government, the Liberals and Nationals working together; at the moment, that reunion hasn’t happened,” he said.

“I believe it will at some point, it can’t be forced. It’s got to be at the right time for the right reason.”

It means shadow portfolios such as emergency management and trade are unfilled due to those roles previously being held by Nationals members.

Paterson said it was likely the Liberals would appoint acting spokespeople for the missing portfolios before parliament resumed on Tuesday.

Nats confident in Littleproud

Senior Nationals members are confident David Littleproud will remain leader of the party, while his challenger admits he hasn’t begun canvassing for votes.

Queensland MP Colin Boyce declared he will challenge Littleproud for the party’s top job when politicians return to Canberra next week, while the Liberal Party scrambles to reunify the Coalition.

“It seems to me that under Littleproud’s leadership, to blow the Coalition up twice now since the last federal election, that is not a position I want to be in,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

Asked whether he was actively canvassing colleagues for votes, Boyce simply said “No”.

He denied suggestions that his motion was a move to help another member’s leadership plans.

“I’m not aware of anybody else that is intending to run for leadership,” Boyce said.

Insiders believe the push to unseat Littleproud is unlikely to succeed because Boyce does not have the numbers.

Influential senator Matt Canavan said while he understood Boyce’s intentions to rebuild the Coalition, he would not support the spill motion in the party room when it comes on Monday.

“The buck stops obviously with the leaders, so I hope David can keep everyone together,” he told Sky News.

Littleproud will “absolutely” remain leader, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said on Nine’s Today program, adding she “cannot see the spill motion getting up”.

The impending leadership spill is delaying Ley’s push for reunion talks with the Nationals following the spectacular break-up.

Ley wrote to her Liberal colleagues on Wednesday, saying she had asked to meet Littleproud and other senior party officials, without any preconditions and as a priority. She said it was in the national interest to maintain a strong and functioning relationship between the two parties, regardless of whether they are in a formal coalition.

Liberal sources have said Ley still holds hopes of uniting the Coalition after its messy divorce.

Littleproud issued a statement on Wednesday night saying a time would be scheduled to meet Ley after the spill motion. He said it was important to respect the process of the leadership spill.

Canavan also raised hopes of a Coalition reunification.

“Everybody would like to see us get back together … the disagreement we had last week is in the past,” he said.

Other Nationals have struck a more defiant tone after the split, which was triggered by a disagreement over hate speech laws.

McKenzie said the Nationals wouldn’t be rushed into a meeting simply because the Liberals were under pressure. In a video posted to social media on Wednesday night, she declared the party was “never going to fold on our principles”.

“It’s not who we are, and it’s not what we do,” she said.

-with AAP