A STRING of Liberal MPs have dropped the party's branding from their election campaign material, seemingly ditching party politics for personality politics in a bid to hang on to their seats in the lead up to the election.
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In what's been labelled a move to patch up the Liberals' "toxic" brand before May 18 by Labor, some Liberal MPs including Victorian MPs Jason Wood, Russel Broadbent and Sarah Henderson, have removed all mention of the Liberal Party from their corflutes and supporter paraphernalia.
The election strategy has been rejected by Liberal Wannon MP Dan Tehan, who said his decision to keep the party branding was because he is a "proud" Liberal.
"I'm using Liberal Party branding, as well as running my own election campaign," Mr Tehan said. "Obviously I am very proud member of the Scott Morrison Government," he added.
Labor's campaign spokesman, Jim Chalmers, said that Liberal MPs were trying to escape their party's record and were "standing on a platform of cuts".
"Liberals like Sarah Henderson know that their own party brand is toxic and will damage their chances of re-election," Chalmers said.
"But you can't just airbrush out six years of cuts and chaos."
When asked to address claims of toxic culture within the Liberal Party, Mr Tehan didn't answer; instead turning attention to the Opposition.
"What I would say to any Labor Party member making these claims is, why do you have 27 Labor MPs refusing to have Bill Shorten on their branding?"
"It is Bill Shorten that is toxic, and the reason he is toxic is because he is rigging $387 billion dollars-worth of taxes.
"Everyone in the community is asking what would Bill Shorten do to me?
"It's nothing more than bluff to take the attention away from how toxic Bill Shorten is."
Michael Barling, who was the Labor candidate for Wannon in 2016, said he was surprised by the lack of signage around the electorate by Mr Tehan so close to the election.
"I just cannot find any of his corflutes in Warrnambool," he said.
Labor candidate for Wannon, Maurice Billi has been contacted by The Standard for comment.