Party members have been using the messaging service WhatsApp to try to oust Mr Joyce on the basis that “disunity is death”, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Mr Joyce, whose affair with former staffer Vikki Campion has put the Coalition on the brink and triggered a public falling out with the Prime Minister, has been benched as Acting PM while Malcolm Turnbull prepares to leave the country for a trip to the US.

The pair met on Saturday for urgent talks after publicly trading barbs over Mr Joyce’s extramarital conduct. But as they tried to iron out their issues in Sydney, elsewhere senior Nationals were reportedly canvassing a challenge to their leader.

Veterans affairs Minister Michael McCormack has not ruled out a challenge at Monday’s crucial partyroom meeting, telling Fairfax yesterday it “depends on what happens between now and then.”

All 20 Nationls MPs were using this weekend to “take temperature readings” in their electorates ahead of any decision on Mr Joyce’s future as leader. Several have told The Weekend Australian his position is untenable.

“Obviously what else transpires — not just in our electorates but obviously on a national front — has to be thought through,” Mr McCormack, considered a leadership frontrunner, was quoted as saying.

Prime Minister Turnbull and Mr Joyce held urgent talks at lunchtime in Sydney in a bid to reconcile differences following their public row triggered by Mr Joyce’s affair with former staffer and mother of his unborn child, Vikki Campion.

The reconciliation between the pair — who have in recent days accused each other of poor judement and ineptitude in a series of public barbs — took place at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in the Sydney CBD in an attempt to restore stability to the Coalition before Mr Turnbull travels to the US on Wednesday night.

The Weekend Australian understands Mr Joyce said he did not disagree with the Prime Minister’s criticism of his relationship with Vikki Campion, but was concerned Mr Turnbull had been too severe in his public comments.

Unveiling a ban on sexual relations between ministers and their staff on Thursday, Mr Turnbull said that Mr Joyce had made a “shocking error of judgment” and unleashed a “world of woe” for the Nationals Leader’s estranged wife and his daughters.

Mr Joyce is also understood to have told the Prime Minister that his comments were ill-timed after he yesterday rebuked Mr Turnbull’s handling of the affair as “inept” and unnecessary.

The meeting comes after Liberal and Nationals MPs urged their two leaders to bury the hatchet amid concern the crisis over Mr Joyce’s private life was escalating and at risk of fracturing the Coalition.

ABBOTT TAKES SWIPE AT PM OVER JOYCE TREATMENT

The meeting comes as former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott has waded into the public leadership stoush engulfing the coalition government, taking a veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull.

Speaking in Melbourne on Saturday, Mr Abbott said the Prime Minister, as leader of the Liberals, should not publicly comment on the leadership of the Nationals under Barnaby Joyce.

“The general rule I always observed was that one party doesn’t give another party public advice,” Mr Abbott told reporters.

“If a member of parliament has something to say to another member of parliament he or she should knock on the door or pick up the phone.”

He said Australians wanted a “back to basics” approach from the government — lowering power prices, raising wages and getting traffic moving again in cities.

“The last thing anyone wants is for politicians to be talking about themselves,” Mr Abbott said.

Nationals MPs shocked by Mr Joyce’s decision to publicly attack the Prime Minister were reviving moves on Friday to persuade him to stand down as Deputy Prime Minister or force a spill at Monday week’s party room meeting.

LIB SAYS JOYCE ‘KNOWINGLY DERAILING’ GOVERNMENT

Several Nationals MPs told The Weekend Australian Mr Joyce’s position was untenable and demanded he step down ­before the next partyroom meeting on Monday week where they warned he could face a spill ­motion for the leadership.

Mr Joyce yesterday deepened divisions within the Nationals partyroom when he labelled the Prime Minister’s scathing comments about his personal relationship with former staffer and mother of his unborn child, Vikki Campion, as “inept”.

One Nationals MP said: “It’s time to do the honourable thing to ensure that family is put first and time is taken to address those personal issues and let the government get on with governing.

“The right action to take is for the Deputy Prime Minister to stand down. The government will be paralysed.

“Clearly this will continue to be a national and inter­national story, and that’s in no one’s interest … There is no recovery from this position for the Deputy Prime Minister.”

Another senior Nationals MP said: “The talk Barnaby represents the whole party is bullshit ... I see the answer is that Barnaby needs to step down and go.”

Several cabinet ministers ­privately said the volley of personal attacks levelled by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime ­Minister against each other over Mr Joyce’s extramarital affair with a staffer was almost without ­precedent for two leaders in office.

Nationals MP Michelle ­Landry, a supporter of Mr Joyce who holds the marginal Queensland seat of Capricornia, yesterday provided qualified support for her leader, saying “we will have our partyroom meeting the Monday after next”, and at this point he had the “support of the partyroom”.

The Nationals whip said Mr Joyce had spoken out against Mr Turnbull because he was “upset and hurt” by his comments.

Earlier on Saturday, Liberal senator Ian Macdonald said Mr Joyce knew his actions were damaging the government, and he should spend time on the backbench.

“Barnaby would have known it would derail the government’s line, the government’s focus and it really is giving Bill Shorten a free kick,” Senator Macdonald told the ABC.

“Clearly, his path is that he’s got to take a very, very low profile, I hope on the backbench for, you know, a few months.”

Labor MP Pat Conroy described the entire scenario as a “soap opera”.

“It’s a valiant defence of the indefensible,” he told ABC News.

“There’s a massive question to answer. Malcolm Turnbull said on Thursday that Barnaby needed to consider this position. That’s code for saying, I need you to resign.”

On Friday, Nationals MP Andrew Broad said that while Barnaby Joyce had made an error of judgment, his leadership of the Nationals remained safe for now.

“But I’m still waiting to see if there’s been an abuse of power. If I see that and it’s clear, then I’ll be one of the people talking about what should be the action as a result of that,” he told the ABC.

AAP