Zak Kirkup’s radical tactic to concede defeat at the upcoming state election to Mark McGowan and the WA Labor Party has received mixed reactions from Liberal Party candidates.

6PR’s Oliver Peterson says that while Kirkup’s decision has support from some members of the Liberal Party saying the move is “brave, honest and realistic”, there are candidates who tell Peterson the decision is “narcissistic, cowardly and disgusting”.

Peterson says “One Liberal told me they feel betrayed and this is the worst decision they have ever seen in politics”

“Another says the pre-selection process has been hopeless and the party needs major constitutional change”

Senior politics lecturer at Notre Dame University and 6PR State Election analyst Martin Drum joined Oliver Peterson on the Perth Live program to share his thoughts on the tactic.

“It is being honest, it is being realistic perhaps but also there’s the need to gee up your own supporters and you’ve gotta give people hope”.

Drum says the tactic might be a move to mitigate the crisis in the case that the Labor Party wins the election in a landslide.

“I think the strategy is all about… managing expectations so if they cop a wallowing and they get a really poor result they’ll say see I told you so”.

Drum also concedes that Mark McGowan’s unprecedented popularity has made it nearly impossible for the Liberal Party.

“What the hell can you do? You can’t run all the usual scare campaigns because people are trusting him (McGowan) in ways that they don’t normally trust politicians”