Two former Liberals have been accused of fleeing to the “orange paddock of despair” after defecting to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The right-wing party has grown its ranks with the addition of former Liberal senator Hollie Hughes and the party’s former vice president Teena McQueen.

Hanson announced the pair had jumped ship during an event at Hughes’ pub in regional NSW just over a week after the minor party’s breakthrough win in the Farrer byelection.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor shrugged off the news, but fellow Liberal Tim Wilson blasted the defections.

“If somebody wants to follow others into the orange paddock of despair, that is their choice,” he said in Sydney.

“They’re not the ones looking to the horizon with optimism and confidence and the spirit of what we can build in this country.”

Hughes, who resigned from the Liberal Party live on air after being bumped to an unwinnable spot on the Senate ticket, said she hadn’t decided whether she would run for parliament again under the One Nation banner.

“I’m not ruling anything in and I’m not ruling anything out,” she told Sky News.

Hughes owns a pub in Rydal, near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains, and she said she was enjoying her new career in hospitality.

She suggested more Liberal rank-and-file members could soon jump ship to join Hanson.

Taylor refused to be drawn when asked about the ex-Liberal duo’s moves.

“That’s their choice,” he said before pivoting to an attack on Labor’s tax policy.

One Nation has grown its ranks since former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce defected to the right-wing party in December.

It had its first lower-house victory earlier in May when it won the seat of Farrer, which had previously been held by the Coalition since its creation in 1949.

The clear win prompted Joyce to declare One Nation could pick up seats in areas such as western Sydney when Australians next go to the polls in 2028.

-AAP