MALCOLM Turnbull has come up with a strange reason for why he didn’t have to approve the series of well-paid jobs given to the new partner of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

His office says it is because Vikki Campion, now carrying the Nationals leader’s baby, wasn’t Mr Joyce’s partner.

This is an attempt by Mr Turnbull to dodge a section of a five-year-old ministerial standards statement that insists the Prime Minister must approve the employment of family and partners.

The issue is drawing the PM deeper into the drama surrounding Mr Joyce’s love life by a code of ministerial conduct he has to enforce.

Mr Turnbull told Parliament the Nationals had a staffing allocation as a share of the Government’s overall pool. He said the distribution was a matter for the Nationals, who had not taken up their full allocation.

Mr Turnbull had said on February 10 “he had not discussed Ms Campion’s employment with me or my office.”

He confirmed that the Nationals were responsible for decisions relating to staffing.

The Statement on Ministerial Standards released by then-PM Tony Abbott in December 2013 makes Mr Turnbull directly accountable for jobs provided to Ms Campion.

The Prime Minister’s involvement in the domestic arrangements of his deputy, Nationals leader Mr Joyce, will be pursued by Labor.

But a variety of sources have downplayed suggestions the Nationals will censure or even dump Mr Joyce as leader. “Certainly he’s a great leader and I stand by that,” prominent Nationals senator John Williams told ABC Radio today.

One source said Mr Joyce had made clear to party officials some time ago he would not abandon his new relationship: “If the choice had been between the girl and the job, he would stick with her.”

However, party sources said he would have to mend some damaged links with grassroots members, particularly women. And it was likely that when Mr Joyce goes full folksy and puts on his cattle-yard-chucklehead act, it would not seem as cute or funny.

The Government will be asked to account for aspects of his new relationship affecting taxpayers. Ms Campion, now expecting Mr Joyce’s child, was moved from his office, where she worked as media adviser, when the relationship developed.

She was given a job in the office of Resources Minister Matt Canavan and then in the office of Nationals whip Damian Drum.

The Nationals on Saturday said they were responsible for who worked in ministerial offices. But the Abbott-era ministerial standards say the Prime Minister must be consulted when partners are given positions.

Section 2.23 says: “Ministers’ close relatives and partners are not to be appointed to positions in their ministerial or electorate offices, and must not be employed in the offices of other members of the Executive Government without the Prime Minister’s express approval.

“A close relative or partner of a Minister is not to be appointed to any position in an agency in the Minister’s own portfolio if the appointment is subject to the agreement of the Minister or Cabinet.”

Labor has made clear it will not intrude into Mr Joyce’s private affairs surrounding the breakdown of his 24-year marriage to Natalie Joyce, with who he had four daughters. But the Opposition will chase suggestions Mr Turnbull was complicit in looking after Ms Campion where her position on Mr Joyce’s staff became untenable.

“The only area in which there is a genuine public interest is in the area of expenditure of taxpayer funds,” Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said on Sunday.

“There have been questions over the last few days about jobs that have been created for Vikki Campion and the expenditure of taxpayer funds on travel.”

The ministerial standards were aimed at those “entrusted with the conduct of public business and must act in a manner that is consistent with the highest standards of integrity and propriety”.

“They are required to act in accordance with the law, their oath of office and their obligations to the Parliament,” says the forward to the statement. “In addition to those requirements, it is vital that Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries conduct themselves in a manner that will ensure public confidence in them and in the government.”