Tony Abbott's Chief Whip, Philip Ruddock, has been removed in the wake of Tony Abbott's near-death-experience in a spill attempt earlier this week.

He will be replaced by Queensland LNP MP Scott Buchholz.

Philip Ruddock (right) departs Monday's Liberal party room meeting to announce the result. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The dramatic development appears to be part of the continuing fall-out from that ballot after eyebrows were raised when Mr Abbott's camp underestimated the pro-spill forces at 16 to 18 votes only to find they had more than twice that at 39. In the end, the Prime Minister survived that proposed spill by an uncomfortably close margin of just a dozen votes.

Abbott loyalists questioned Mr Ruddock's energy levels with some muttering darkly that he should have possessed a better understanding of the numbers and perhaps been more active in protecting the Prime Minister among tetchy backbenchers.