David Littleproud has survived a Nationals leadership challenge, with backbencher Colin Boyce’s spill motion quickly defeated on Monday.

“There was a spill motion in the National party room, and it unsuccessful. So, David Littleproud is still the leader of the federal
National Party,” chief whip Michelle Landry said within half an hour of the party room meeting starting.

She would not reveal voting numbers or if the Nationals had reached a decision about rejoining the Coalition.

“We’re all working together, and our goal is to work sensibly with our colleagues and just get on with being a good opposition … against the Labor Party,” Landry said.

Monday’s leadership vote came as One Nation recorded another astonishing rise in polls. A Redbridge poll released on Monday found primary support for the Liberals and Nationals had fallen to 19 per cent, down from 26 per cent in December.

Redbridge poll director Tony Barry said the worst might not be over for the former Coalition partners, noting One Nation’s primary vote was at 26 per cent.

One Nation MP and former National Barnaby Joyce cited his defection and the disunity of the Coalition as reasons for the poll surge, while also teasing an announcement of another recruit to the right-wing party in the next 24 hours.

Repeatedly pressed on breakfast TV, he declined to give more details. But he did expressly rule out Boyce and Victorian Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.

Sydney radio station 2GB reported Cory Bernardi, a former Liberal senator who established the short-lived Australian Conservatives party, could be One Nation’s next recruit.

Nationals MP Michael McCormack, a former party leader, said One Nation’s surge was being fuelled by “cranky people” and polls should be taken with a grain of salt.

“If we believed in polls, in 2019, Scott Morrison and I wouldn’t have won that election,” the former Nationals leader said.

“The Voice [to Parliament referendum] would be in place right now because everybody thought it was a fait accompli. Well, it wasn’t.”

The vote followed nearly two weeks of infighting between the former Coalition parties triggered by a split vote on Labor’s controversial hate speech laws.

Boyce said he was moving it as the Nationals were committing “political suicide” by trying to go it alone without the Liberal Party’s support.

“I’m hoping to achieve a change of leadership in the National Party and the Liberal Party, and then I hope that we can form a coalition agreement, wipe the slate clean, get rid of the egos and personalities, start afresh,” he said.

On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese likened the fighting in the former Coalition to a reality TV show.

“You can’t fight for Australia if you’re obsessed by fighting each other. And that is what we are seeing on the other side, with the fragmentation of people competing for who can be more right-wing,” he told Labor MPs as they returned to Canberra for the new parliamentary year.

“The other side, we’ll allow them to engage in their bizarre behaviour. I note that Married at First Sight begins tonight, and it’s a bit like that with the relationships on the other side.”

Several Nationals members had said they expected Boyce’s motion to fail to trigger a vote on Littleproud’s leadership as it would need the backing of at least one colleague.

“[Littleproud has] got the support in the party room,” McCormack said, adding that he didn’t anticipate any other colleagues would come forward as a challenger.

He expected the Coalition to reunite within 48 hours, if “cool heads, diplomacy, discipline and commonsense” prevail.

Littleproud is expected to soon meet embattled Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to negotiate reforming the Coalition after its second divorce in 12 months.

Last Friday, Ley announced an interim Liberal-only shadow cabinet, giving the Nationals a week to decide whether the split would become permanent.

If the parties aren’t reunited by the second sitting week, the Liberals plan to promote six of their MPs to the shadow cabinet and two to the outer shadow ministry.

—with AAP