A senior Liberal MP has leapt to the defence of Sussan Ley despite the failure to abandon net zero under her tenure leading to further criticism of her leadership - and being cited as the cause of a mass exodus of party members.

The Australian revealed on Thursday that more than 200 Liberal members in South Australia had quit the party in what amounts to a mass exodus of roughly 5 per cent of the SA division’s entire membership.

SA Liberal director Alex Hyde is understood to have briefed the party’s state executive on Monday about the mass exodus of members, with sources telling The Australian those refusing to renew their membership were longstanding members who were “despondent” and did not know what the party stood for.

According to reports, the two factors universally cited as the r

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