"I'm honoured today to accept this role as the leader of the United Australia Party and I call on all Australians who have had enough of the major parties who have led our nation into such chaos to go to the United Australia Party's website and join us in this fight," said Kelly.

Kelly resigned his membership of the Liberal Party in February 2021 over frustration with the Morrison government. The United Australia Party intends to run candidates in all 151 lower house seats and all Senate seats in a major campaign.

The announcement ends months of speculation about where Kelly would end up for the next Federal election. As a popular, long-standing member of the government, he poses a serious risk to the Coalition’s chance of holding the seat.

Despite being banned from Facebook, Kelly holds one of the largest political social media presences in Australia. He has faced fierce opposition from his former colleagues, but growing support from the Australian community.

The United Australia Party has enough funding at its disposal to run candidates across the nation and pose a genuine challenge to established parties.

Under my leadership the United Australia Party will be fighting to end lockdowns & offer an alternate approach to the current mayhem & destruction that the Labor & Liberal parties have created

We’ll be putting Freedom over Fear, Liberty over Lockdowns & Choice over Compulsion pic.twitter.com/j3bdmarkhl

— Craig Kelly MP (@CraigKellyMP) August 23, 2021

Ex-Liberal and National politicians across the country have been threatening to abandon ship and join a raft of minor parties. Earlier, ex-Liberal Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman joined the Liberal Democrats along with John Ruddick – author of ‘Make the Liberal Party Great Again’.

This unofficial conservative alliance of independents and minor parties is due to create a major headache for the Morrison government.

The United Australia Party, along with the Liberal Democrats and One Nation have been gaining membership in the wake of Covid health mandates such as ‘Stay-At-Home’ orders, Vaccine Passports, and curfews.