Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has resigned from the Palmer United Party (PUP).
In a statement to thee senate, Lambie said most voters and supporters has urged her to resign, The Guardian reports.
“I wish Clive and his beautiful family, staff and friends all the very best,” she said in a statement.
“I acknowledge that speculation about my membership of the Palmer United Party has caused uncertainty for the Tasmanian and Australian people,” she told the Senate this morning.
“I apologise for that uncertainty. My resignation today will end that damaging speculation and uncertainty.
“Being a member of Palmer United has prevented me from voting in this chamber in a way that gives my Tasmania the best chance of recovering and once again becoming prosperous.
“God bless Australia, God bless my Tasmania and our beautiful Southern Cross.”
The move follows suggestions by PUP leader Clive Palmer that Lambie was deliberately planted in the party to disrupt it.
“I think she was sent in by someone to disrupt. That is what tends to happen with new parties,” Palmer told The Conversation last night. “But we don’t know yet who sent her in.”
Senator Lambie said last week she would spend the weekend considering her position in PUP, the ABC reports.
Earlier in the month, Lambie’s chief of staff was expelled from the party, the ABC reports.
“Everything Senator Lambie says is really coming from her chief of staff,” Clive Palmer said in a statement on 14 November.
“Last night our executive met and we have agreed to expel Rob Messenger from the party on the grounds of making false and misleading statements about our Senators.”
The move — which will inflame existing tensions within the balance-of-power voting bloc– follows Lambie’s criticism of party leader Clive Palmer in interview with the ABC’s Leigh Sales.
[post_snippet id=324408]