On Friday, 17 July 2026, the Victorian Liberal Party's state executive voted to disendorse Moira Deeming as a candidate for the November 2026 state election. The decision strips Deeming from the number 1 position on the party's ticket for the Western Metropolitan region. In a statement, the party confirmed: "Tonight the Liberal Party state executive decided to cancel the endorsement of Moira Deeming for the number one position in the Western Metropolitan region" (The Guardian).

Disendorsement means the party formally withdraws its backing of a candidate. Deeming currently sits in the Victorian upper house — the Legislative Council, which reviews and votes on laws passed by the lower house — representing the Western Metropolitan Region. She has served roughly four years as a Liberal MP (AFR). Losing the party's endorsement means she will not appear on the ballot as a Liberal candidate in November. Unless she runs as an independent — unaffiliated with any party — she will lose her parliamentary seat.

The decision follows months of internal conflict. On 15 July 2026, Deeming sent a 12-page statement to the party's state executive offering a mediation proposal that would have allowed her to drop a Supreme Court action she had filed against the party. The following day, 16 July, she withdrew the legal challenge, which had been directed at Victorian Liberal Party president Brian Loughnane.

The party had been preparing for a courtroom fight. On 3 July 2026, the Victorian Liberal Party requested and was granted an expedited court hearing for Deeming's matter (Victorian Liberal Party). Two days earlier, on 1 July, Opposition Leader Brad Battin issued a statement announcing that the state executive would meet to consider Deeming's candidacy (Victorian Liberal Party).

The immediate trigger for the legal dispute was an allegation Deeming made against fellow Liberal MP Matthew Guy. Deeming accused Guy of grabbing her in a headlock at a function in May 2026. She later retracted that characterization, saying she had "misunderstood the meaning of headlock" regarding the incident. CCTV footage from the function showed Guy placing his hand on Deeming's upper back as they leaned in to talk. Victoria Police investigated the report and concluded there was "no offence detected" (The Guardian).

The party's election ticket had already been unsettled this cycle. In March 2026, Deeming had been removed from the number one preselection spot — the internal process by which a party chooses its candidates — by Dinesh Gourisetty.

The financial and legal fallout from the Deeming matter extends beyond the current dispute. In June 2025, the Liberal Party Administrative Committee decided to pay Deeming $1.55 million owed to her by John Pesutto following a defamation case (Victorian Liberal Party). A defamation case involves a claim that someone has damaged another person's reputation through false public statements.

The broader context here is the cumulative institutional cost. In a single electoral cycle, the Liberal Party has absorbed a substantial defamation payout, navigated a Supreme Court challenge, and weathered a police investigation into an altercation between two of its own MPs. The disendorsement resolves the immediate legal threat to the party organization, but it leaves the Western Metropolitan ticket in flux less than four months before polling day. Whether Deeming chooses to run as an independent will determine whether the party faces a direct electoral threat from a candidate it has now formally cut loose.