Tony Abbott was warned he would lose the prime ministership unless he dumped chief of staff Peta Credlin, a new book claims.



NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells told Abbott in February 2015 – on the eve of a leadership spill vote – the perception he was having an affair with Credlin was damaging him.



“Rightly or wrongly, the perception is that you are sleeping with your chief of staff,” Fierravanti-Wells told Abbott, according to Niki Savva’s book The Road to Ruin.



“That’s the perception, and you need to deal with it.”



Abbott had calmly denied to Fierravanti-Wells rumours of an affair and refused to sack Credlin, Savva wrote.



Liberal party members voted against a spill on February 9, 2015.



Days later Credlin told Fierravanti-Wells Abbott would not be able to do his job without her.



“One day Tony will be sitting on a park bench in Manly feeding the pigeons, and he will blame you,” Fierravanti-Wells replied, according to Savva.



The book contains a Liberal MP’s anecdote detailing howCredlin used a fork to feed Abbott food from her plate at a Melbourne restaurant, and later rested her head on his shoulder and said she was tired.



And it claims Abbott kept Indonesian authorities waiting during a foreign visit to smooth tensions with Credlin, who was upset to be left out of a meeting with the Indonesian president.



The book also says Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce warned Abbott of a possible leadership challenge one month before Abbott was deposed.



Abbott reportedly changed the subject.



He was toppled by Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership ballot last September.