Libby Mettam won’t say whether Basil Zempilas had any involvement in failed leadership coup

Liberal Leader Libby Mettam won’t say whether she believes Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas’ denials had any involvement in Tuesday’s failed leadership coup. Mr Zempilas, who is the Liberal candidate for Churchlands, has maintained that the motion moved to appoint him ‘campaign leader’ — triggered by a rogue opinion poll — was “unnecessary, unhelpful and not of my making” but revealed he is aware of other polls that have tested the “Basil effect” too. “There is polling happening all the time,” he told 6PR radio on Friday. “On my phone I can send you from the last probably six weeks various screenshots that people have sent me of polls that have been in the field, some of them mentioned my name. “I imagine some of it done by Liberal Party headquarters.” Ms Mettam would not respond to Labor’s claim the pair cannot “co-exist” after Mr Zempilas refused to reveal the name of the person he suspects funded the poll, and wouldn’t comment on the existence of other polls. “Basil has given me his word,” she said. “Basil will be an asset to our team, if he is elected in Churchlands. As I made clear this week, I am not going to make a habit of commenting on polls.” Mr Zempilas rejected claims his election chances have been damaged by the revelation his former campaign manager Cam Sinclair commissioned the poll that pitted him against Ms Mettam. Mr Sinclair “stepped aside” from the Churchlands campaign team after the poll sparked internal chaos this week, but has maintained his digital marketing contract with WA Liberal headquarters. “I have not looked to activate this, I have not looked to bring this on,” Mr Zempilas said. “I didn’t encourage it.” Mr Zempilas admitted he didn’t tell Liberal MP Neil Thomson not to speak up, before he moved the motion on Tuesday to appoint a campaign leader against Ms Mettam. “The first I knew about it was that morning, maybe half an hour before it happened or an hour. “He said to me via a text message that I am going to raise this in the party room today. I don’t think I ever responded, I didn’t understand fully what it meant. “It was never put to me that it was a mechanism to cast a vote on the leadership.” Mr Thomson resigned as Shadow Treasurer within an hour of the vote, that defeated his motion.