Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud has confirmed he will challenge Barnaby Joyce as the leader when the party meets in Canberra on Monday.

He follows Gippsland MP Darren Chester, who has also announced his intention to contest the party’s top job.

Mr Littleproud, Maranoa MP and former agriculture minister, said he advised Mr Joyce of his intention on Saturday.

“This afternoon I advised Barnaby Joyce of my intention to nominate for the position of Leader of The Nationals,” he said in a statement.

“I also took the opportunity to thank him for all his service to our party.

“I feel this is the appropriate time to put myself forward for my party room’s consideration as their leader.

“Ultimately, this is a decision on who will lead the Nationals to the 2025 election. Therefore, out of respect to my colleagues, I will be making no further public statements until after the meeting on Monday.”

The ABC reported nine Nationals have privately expressed their intention to support Mr Littleproud in a leadership ballot.

Others either support Mr Joyce or are yet to decide, the ABC said.

Darren Chester says he’ll challenge Joyce

Earlier, former veterans affairs minister Darren Chester confirmed he would challenge Barnaby Joyce for the Nationals leadership when the party met on Monday.

“We need to be honest with each other in the party room and take some responsibility for the Liberal losses in the city,” Mr Chester told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age late on Thursday.

“How we develop our policies, deliver our message, and work with our Coalition partners in the future will determine whether we can return to government and deliver for regional communities.”

Mr Chester added that it was “time for a change” in the Nationals.

Mr Joyce’s position as leader of the Nationals came under threat after the Coalition lost last weekend’s federal election, with many saying he is at least partly to blame, and some colleagues speaking out about his detrimental impact on the party.

According to Mr Chester, several of his constituents expressed support for him during the campaign, but said they “couldn’t stomach” Mr Joyce as leader.

“We can’t pretend that these things weren’t an issue for us in our seats that we were experiencing some backlash,’ he told The Project on Tuesday evening.

“At any time after a federal election the National Party leadership positions become available so it’s a natural transition point in our party room.

“I’m considering putting my hand up for that role.”

The member for eastern Victorian electorate of Gippsland said he was concerned the party was a drag on Liberal candidates in the cities – something Mr Joyce has denied.

“It’s a bit like a surgeon coming out of an operation and saying ‘the operation was a great success, but the patient died’,” he said.

Deputy leader David Littleproud and former leader Michael McCormack have also hinted at a run and are expected to mount their own challenges on Monday.

Mr McCormack has previously spoken out about Mr Joyce’s popularity with voters, saying he thinks the election result would have been more favourable for the Nationals had he remained leader.

“The votes were much higher last time than they were this time,” Mr McCormack told reporters on Monday.

“There shouldn’t have been a change of leadership of the National Party in June last year, there simply shouldn’t have.”

Connecting with younger and female voting groups will be a challenge for the party moving forward particularly with more people moving from cities to regional seats during the pandemic, according to Mr Chester.

“I think we need to consider what our future looks like as a party in that regard,” Mr Chester said.

Mr Chester, who said during the campaign he supports Australia achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, described the Nationals in many ways as a “loose coalition of like-minded independents”.

“There are people from North Queensland, people like me from south eastern Victoria, quite different communities we represent but we have a shared passion for regional Australia,” he said.

Talk of leadership challenges within the party comes after Joyce declared that he’s “not going anywhere” in the wake of Saturday night’s election results, The Daily Telegraph reported.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Mr Joyce said, regarding then-rumours that either Darren Chester or David Littleproud might consider challenging their leader and calls for the Liberal party to become more “moderate” to court so-called “teal” voters.

“I stand on the premise that we held every seat, we won a senate seat, and we got within striking distance of two other seats against a massive tide,” Mr Joyce said.

“Wouldn’t the Liberals have loved to have the result we had.”

- news.com.au