AN infuriated Peta Credlin has weighed in on the Liberal Party turf war, slamming her own party as being run by “little men with soft, soft backbones, no ticker, no heart and no soul”.

The former chief-of-staff to dumped prime minister Tony Abbott made the comments in an attack on the federal Liberal Party on The Bolt Report on Sky on Monday evening.

It comes after a tape of Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne telling a Liberal Party function that same-sex marriage would happen “sooner than you think” under the party’s reign and gloating that the party’s left faction was “winning” was leaked to The Bolt Report host, conservative commentator Andrew Bolt, at the weekend.

In the tape, Mr Pyne is also heard saying he voted for Malcolm Turnbull in every leadership ballot in which he had run Mr Abbott, which, apparently came as a shock to Mr Abbott, for whom Mr Pyne served as leader of the house and education minister.

But it was the political infighting that had Ms Credlin infuriated and a turf war she said was “willingly handing Bill Shorten and the most left-wing team the keys to the front door yet again”.

“They are congratulating each other for a factional turf war inside the one party when the biggest opponent sits across them in the chamber, it’s called the Labor Party,” she said.

“It’s become a plaything for men, and it is mainly men I have to say Andrew, with really small minds. Little men with soft, soft, backbones, no ticker, no heart and no soul.

“That’s who is running the Liberal Party now.”

Peta Credlin says the Liberal Party is run by ‘little men with soft backbones, with no heart and no soul’. MORE https://t.co/E6iWhCGm8F pic.twitter.com/zOjBpve6zb — The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) June 26, 2017

The emergence of the tape of Mr Pyne addressing the party on Friday night publicly reopened internal divisions within the party.

In the recording, Mr Pyne is heard to say senior members of the Liberal Party’s moderate faction have risen to positions of power in the government.

“Friends, we are in the winner’s circle,” Mr Pyne said.

“Two years ago when we came to a Federal Council in Melbourne at a lovely dinner Malcolm Turnbull was the minister for communications and now he is the prime minister.

“So I would say our fortunes are pretty good at the moment and most of your cabinet ministers, George Brandis, Marise Payne and yours truly, quite a few of us are in very senior cabinet positions in a Turnbull government.”

In his regular morning radio spot on Sydney’s 2GB on Monday morning, Mr Abbott lashed out at Mr Pyne’s disloyalty to him.

“But if (Mr Pyne is) to be believed on Friday night that loyalty was never there which is incredibly disappointing,” he said.

After hearing Mr Pyne’s “confession”, Mr Abbott insisted MPs need to be fair dinkum with the Australian people.

“It looks like that’s not been true of Christopher,” he said.