PRIME Minister Scott Morrison didn’t miss Tony Abbott’s awkward encounter with his fellow Liberals in his seat of Warringah.

But the Prime Minister was determined to play a straight bat when news.com.au asked him about the growing controversy today.

Mr Abbott was again selected as his party’s candidate in the seat he has held for 25 years after running unopposed at a branch meeting on Saturday evening.

But some Liberals did it while holding their noses — and a large rebel group refused to support him at all.

“He was endorsed,” Mr Morrison said of Mr Abbott today, a wry grin on his face.

Pushed to comment on the significant opposition to Mr Abbott’s preselection, the Prime Minister was clearly not keen to elaborate on his feelings.

“The iron laws of arithmetic, would be my response. Simple maths, he was endorsed,” he said.

“I welcome his re-endorsement, as I said in a note to congratulate him.”

Mr Morrison was careful not to make any deeper comment on Mr Abbott’s predicament, and neither condemned nor supported the Warringah rebels, who have publicly pushed for the vote count to be revealed.

Elsewhere in the Liberal Party, there is speculation the embarrassment will send Mr Abbott a firm message that his disruptive campaign to remove former PM Malcolm Turnbull will not be tolerated under Mr Morrison.

And the mini rebellion was also a signal Mr Abbott had not accurately represented the views of Warringah Liberals on such issues as same-sex marriage and climate change.

After initially refusing to release the result of the vote, the NSW Liberal Party this afternoon confirmed that Mr Abbott was re-endorsed with 68 votes in his favour.

According to Fairfax Media, 30 members voted against him and two presented informal votes.