Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has assured Prime Minister Tony Abbott that she has not been campaigning for his job. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The deputy Liberal leader's assurance does not mean the prospect of a Julie Bishop prime ministership is completely off the table as a commitment not to challenge does not rule her out from running if a leadership ballot is declared and all positions are open. Despite Ms Bishop's commitment, several Liberal MPs and other well-placed party sources told Fairfax Media that the leadership tensions had not been extinguished. "The problem for the Prime Minister is on the back bench, you've still got people like (Queensland MPs) Mal Brough and Andrew Laming chipping away at him," one critic of Mr Abbott said. A second source said relations between Ms Bishop, Mr Abbott and his chief of staff Peta Credlin were "untenable".

Mr Abbott was asked several times during a Sunrise interview on Tuesday morning whether a Sky News report claiming Ms Bishop refused to rule out a challenge when they met at Sydney's Kirribilli House on Sunday was accurate. "I'm not going to play these Canberra insider games," Mr Abbott replied. "Why don't we just leave all that insider gossip to the Canberra insiders." Appearing in Sydney with his wife Margie and backbench MP Craig Laundy a few hours later, Mr Abbott said he would not be calling on a leadership ballot, and declined to call on his deputy to rule out a challenge. "Julie and I have lots of talks as you'd expect, we're friends, we're colleagues, we're part of the leadership team and we support each other…we always have and we always will," the Prime minister told reporters. Earlier on Tuesday however, cabinet minister Ian Macfarlane said that for the sake of the government Ms Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull must publicly declare their intentions.

"We need a united team at the moment…there shouldn't be a discussion about changing leaders," he told the ABC. Fairfax Media revealed on Monday that Ms Bishop and Mr Turnbull have for the first time begun weighing up their options over the leadership. They have both spoken with Mr Brough in recent days, after Fairfax Media revealed on Saturday the former Howard government minister was being urged to consider challenging Mr Abbott. Sources close to Ms Bishop and Mr Turnbull insist Mr Brough is not working for them to destabilise the Prime Minister. "Mal is the key to it, he is uncontrollable," the second source said.

Mr Brough was due to give a speech about health reform in his electorate on Tuesday night. Before the speech he told Fairfax Media he would also address the ongoing leadership speculation. He praised Ms Bishop's declaration but would not say if a leadership tilt remained on the table. "Her statement is the right and proper thing to do as the Prime Minister's deputy," Mr Brough said. "I am not declaring anything tonight, there is nothing to declare. I am not making any announcement." Treasurer Joe Hockey, emerging from a two-day cabinet meeting to address the cut in interest rates on Tuesday afternoon, told reporters Ms Bishop is "100 per cent" behind Mr Abbott.

"I have no doubt, no doubt at all that Julie Bishop is absolutely 100 per cent supportive of the prime minister as we all are," he said. Chatter about Mr Abbott's leadership kicked into overdrive after his much ridiculed decision to knight Prince Philip on Australia Day. In his highly anticipated speech to the National Press Club on Monday, Mr Abbott acknowledged that he "probably overdid it" with the decision and delegated responsibility for appointing knights and dames to the Order of Australia Council. However, he declared that only voters should have the right to "hire and fire" their leaders. "We were elected in 2013 because the Australian people rejected chaos and we are not going to take them back to that chaos," he said.

Loading "Sure, party rooms or caucuses choose leaders but once they've gone to an election, things have changed. It's the people that hire, and frankly it's the people that should fire." Follow us on Twitter