Embattled Senator Fatima Payman is expected to quit the Labor Party today and move to the crossbench.
The West Australian politician was suspended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday for crossing the floor and supporting a Greens motion on Palestinian statehood.
After breaking more than 100 years of protocol over the party’s stance on Palestine, she then vowed to do it again.
Labor has left the door open for her to return to the fold if she agrees to abide by its solidarity rules, but yesterday Albanese all but confirmed Payman will leave the party.
He told Parliament that the senator “has made a decision to place herself outside the Labor Party”.
Albanese also said he believed Payman has had a strategy to leave the party in place for about a month.
The senator has met political adviser Glenn Druery and has the backing of Muslim groups, reports Nine Newspapers.
The imam of Perth’s biggest mosque has also thrown his support behind her stance.
Imam Syed Wadood Janud said Payman showed “courage and fortitude and bravery”.
In a statement on Monday, the first-term senator claimed she had been ”exiled” and accused some of her Labor colleagues of trying to intimidate her into resigning from the upper house.
