Dennis Jensen, the Liberal federal MP who attracted headlines last week for his unpublished racy novel, has missed out on preselection for the Western Australian seat of Tangney.

His challenger, former state Liberal director Ben Morton, was the victor at a meeting on Sunday, but the decision will still need to be ratified by State Council next weekend.

Jensen was backed by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who recommended he be re-endorsed for the federal election, but preselectors still chose to dump him from the safe Liberal seat of Tangney, which he has held since 2004.

There have been two previous attempts to oust Jensen – he was saved once by the former prime minister John Howard and another time by State Council, but they are unlikely to do it again.

On Sunday Jensen conceded it was unlikely a challenge against this preselection decision would succeed given it was such a strong vote against him.

Jensen made headlines last week after it was revealed that several years ago he pitched a novel, involving graphic sex and a fictional war between Australia and an Indonesia-China coalition, to a publisher using his parliamentary letterhead.

He admitted it was a mistake but questioned the timing of the leak.

After the meeting on Sunday, Jensen said the story, published in the Australian newspaper, “absolutely” affected his chances of being re-endorsed and was part of a “deliberate strategy” to put his supporters offside.

Jensen said he had enlisted defamation lawyer Martin Bennett to commence proceedings against the newspaper in the WA supreme court on Monday.

Morton told reporters on Sunday he was proud and humbled that the Liberals had put their faith in him and thanked Jensen for his contribution to the party and the community.



The WA premier, Colin Barnett, said Morton had an “enormous amount of ability” and did not doubt he would succeed.

Controversy has followed Jensen recently after he lashed out over Indigenous welfare programs, saying taxpayers should not fund “noble savage” lifestyle choices of remote communities.

He is also an outspoken climate change sceptic and opposes same-sex marriage.