The failure of a Liberal leadership spill motion at a West Australian partyroom meeting today has left the party bruised while failing to fully resolve ongoing tensions.

The vote to declare the leadership vacant was defeated 15 votes to 31.

While the 15 who voted in favour are not necessarily supporters of potential challenger and former transport minister Dean Nalder, they were nonetheless keen to see a vote for the leadership take place today.

Ministers made a pointed show of solidarity as they walked into a Cabinet meeting together yesterday, vowing to support Mr Barnett, and again this morning many MPs were vocal about their intention to vote for the Premier in the event of a spill.

Mr Barnett was keen to put a positive spin on the situation, telling the media after the meeting that "everyone has agreed to stand behind the leadership".

Party secretary Brian Ellis concurred and said the vote was "a clear indication of the strong support for our leader and we will progress now as a united team with everyone falling into place".

That sounds more like wishful thinking than a statement of fact. It's difficult to see how everyone will fall into place given that a third of MPs wanted the spill motion to succeed, and given the animosity and turmoil that's played out publicly over the past few days.

A Cabinet reshuffle is a possibility following the weekend's resignations of local government minister Tony Simpson and Mr Nalder, but the problem for Mr Barnett is the lack of a deep and experienced talent pool to draw from to replace them.

With former ministers Helen Morton and Murray Cowper also publicly condemning his continued leadership, along with backbencher Ian Britza, presenting any sort of credible united Liberal front in the near future will be a challenge.

Polls, economy ongoing headaches

Then there's the problem of the polls.

The Liberals have been unable to manage to consistently stay ahead in Newspoll since 2014, and in January this year Labor widened its lead to 53-47.

By May, that had widened further 54-46, with Mr Barnett trailing Labor leader Mark McGowan as preferred premier by 46-32.

And when a group of dissatisfied prominent Perth business figures bankrolled a private poll of almost 11,000 people showing the Government headed for an election loss next March, the leadership speculation and agitation reached a critical mass.

Colin Barnett's previous calls for Liberal MPs to show unity have fallen flat. ( ABC News: Andrew O'Connor )

It is understood the survey showed that if the Liberal Party did not swap leaders, the Government would win only one of the 11 seats included in the poll — clearly casting Mr Barnett as unelectable.

Some good news came for the Government in the way of a newspaper poll published on Saturday, which coincided with the eruption of the leadership turmoil.

Labor was still ahead in the poll, 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis, but the gap was decidedly narrower.

Mr Barnett and his supporters have relied heavily on that result in recent days, citing it repeatedly in the argument to keep him in the top job.

However the declining state of the WA economy is another major headache.

The May budget forecast a $3.9-billion deficit for the current financial year, with state debt due to reach $33 billion next year and climbing to a whopping $40 billion in 2020.

The unemployment rate in the state has surged to 5.7 per cent, house prices are sinking and many feel that the spoils of the state's unprecedented mining boom have been squandered.

This is despite Mr Barnett spruiking his record on infrastructure at every opportunity — the building of hospitals and roads, riverside developments and a new sports stadium.

A further issue is the Liberals' fractious relationship with their partners in government, the Nationals.

Just last month Brendon Grylls was blunt in his assessment of the Barnett Government's prospects, as he made his return to the Nationals leadership.

"I currently do not believe the Liberal-National Government is in a winnable position to succeed in the March 2017 state election," he said.

While Mr Barnett may have survived today's vote, the issue of whether he can survive until next March's state election may be far from resolved.