Abbott, Bishop to fight together to defeat leadership spill

CANBERRA - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday announced that deputy party leader Julie Bishop will run alongside him in defeating next week's leadership spill motion.

Earlier on Friday, Western Australian MP Luke Simpkins called for a vote on the federal government's leadership, to be held during next Tuesday's party room meeting.

It was a motion seconded by fellow Western Australian backbencher Don Randall.

The motion followed weeks of speculation regarding Abbott's future amid unrest within the government over poor polling results and Liberal's loss in recent Victorian and Queensland state elections.

Abbott's decision to award an Australian knighthood to 93-year-old Prince Philip, without consulting fellow party members, had also drawn criticism.

Although reports in the Australian media had claimed Bishop might challenge Abbott for his role as the country's leader, those suggestions were quashed on Friday when the prime minister revealed she would campaign alongside him to defeat the leadership spill motion.

"As you know, two of my colleagues have called for a leadership spill of the two senior positions in our party," Abbott said in a press conference on Friday. "They've called for a spill of my position as leader and they've called for a spill of Julie Bishop's position as deputy.