Liberals are jostling for position after a leadership showdown was confirmed for Friday morning, with Angus Taylor expected to challenge Sussan Ley.

The meeting will begin at 9am in Canberra.

A deluge of frontbenchers quit their roles on Thursday to back Taylor’s tilt at the party’s top job after he announced his resignation from the frontbench.

Senators James Paterson and Jonno Duniam were the highest-profile resignations, with Paterson warning that the party had to “change or die”.

Paterson said Ley’s leadership was untenable as the Liberals tanked to historic lows in numerous polls and were overtaken by right-wing minor party One Nation.

“Angus understands that this is a change or die moment for the Liberal Party,” Paterson said. “We must change, or we will not continue to exist.”

The polls, putting the Coalition’s primary vote as low as 18 per cent, meant the party had lost millions of supporters since the May election, Paterson said.

“This cannot go on. If it goes on, there will be nothing left of the Liberal Party at the next election,” Paterson said after quitting Ley’s frontbench on Thursday.

Duniam said internal party bickering needed to end so the opposition team could unite and focus on holding the Labor government to account.

“Sussan has worked harder than many will ever know and I have stood with her all the way, but this matter must now be resolved and our party needs to get on with the job of winning back the trust of Australians,” he said.

While most expect the vote to be tight, coming down to one or two ballots, one MP — who isn’t counting votes for either Ley or Taylor — said conversations with colleagues revealed her time as leader was over.

Taylor was poised to win with somewhere between five and 12 extra votes, they said.

Ley initially beat Taylor in a leadership contest 29 to 25 after last May’s federal election. Three of her supporters have since left the party room.

The ABC reports that several candidates are considering putting forward their names for the deputy and even the leader’s role.

Victorian senator Jane Hume is reportedly canvassing for the deputy Liberal leadership, as is incumbent Ted O’Brien.

The ABC said multiple Liberals said Victorian MP Tim Wilson was weighing up a tilt at leader if Ley lost to Taylor, but he was also an option for deputy.

Other deputy candidates were Victorian frontbench MP Dan Tehan, Victorian MP Zoe McKenzie and Queenslander Angie Bell, said the ABC.

The opposition leader has maintained her silence on Thursday’s resignations and Taylor’s challenge.

She posted to social media about a plan for “a better future” by taking the pressure off families, fixing the budget and keeping Australians safe.

Shadow attorney-general Andrew Wallace and housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said they still backed Ley, with the latter saying she should have been given at least a year in the job.

Paterson denied rolling the Liberals’ first female leader so early in her tenure exacerbated the party’s problem with women’s representation, saying leaders were judged on performance and Ley had the worst approval rating for an opposition leader in decades.

“It is clear what the verdict on her leadership is,” he said after pointing to Labor knifing the first female prime minister, Julia Gillard.

Conservative Liberals Phil Thompson and Jess Collins officially petitioned Ley on Thursday morning to call a party-room meeting to decide the leadership. 

Thompson and other shadow ministers, including Matt O’Sullivan and Claire Chandler, then tendered their resignations from the front bench to support Taylor.

One Ley supporter said anyone predicting an overwhelming win wasn’t well-informed.

Ley is weighing up the pros and cons of calling the meeting immediately and waiting an extra day.

She is balancing the need to strip Taylor of momentum against letting him and deputy leader aspirant Jane Hume face further scrutiny over failings during the last election campaign, supporters say.

-with AAP