Speirs, who announced his shock resignation last Thursday saying he’d “had a gutful” of leaks and being undermined, has not spoken publicly to media or endorsed Vincent Tarzia since the frontbencher succeeded him in a ballot of Liberal Party MPs on Monday morning.

Speirs threatened last week to move to the crossbench if Monday’s leadership ballot saw MPs “rewarded as a consequence of their bad behaviour”, and referred to “bad apples”.

It was reported this morning that Speirs was expected to stay in the Liberal fold.

But other sources close to Speirs told InDaily that the MP for the southern seat of Black was taking time out and “keeping his options open”.

The sources also said Speirs has not spoken to any Liberal MP except deputy leader John Gardner, who considered contesting Monday’s leadership ballot but did not put his name forward.

While the sources said Speirs had made no decision yet about his political future, Gardner told reporters a short time ago that he spoke to Speirs this morning and “certainly on my conversations with him… David Speirs is staying in the Liberal Party”.

Asked why he believed Speirs would do so, Gardner said: “Because David Speirs is a Liberal, David Speirs is a passionate local member, David Speirs is a good friend, and David Speirs and I remain in close contact.”

“He’s enjoying being Member for Black as a focus.

“I speak to David Speirs pretty regularly, I’m not going to go into the details of those conversations, but I’m absolutely convinced and certain that he will stay with us.”

Asked why Speirs has not made a public statement confirming that, Gardner said: “I think that David Speirs is perfectly capable of judging whether or not he wants to make a public statement for himself.

“Right now, I think he’s focused on making sure his electorate gets the service that it needs.

“He’s going to take a holiday, and that’s I think completely understandable.”

Speirs did not attend Monday’s Liberal partyroom meeting which saw Tarzia elected leader 18 votes to four against shadow Attorney-General Josh Teague.

Tarzia also said on Tuesday morning that he was yet to speak directly with his predecessor after extending an “olive branch” to him.

Speirs did, however, break his silence on Tuesday with a social media post from his Hallett Cove electorate office in his local seat of Black.

“Enjoying a respectful reset back in my Hallett Cove office,” Speirs wrote.

“I’ll never stop advocating for those who I represent in our state’s parliament.

“I’ve tried to stay as present as possible in recent years despite being Leader of the South Australian Liberal Party, but now that’s no longer part of my job description, my local patch will be seeing me around a fair bit more often!

“I hope they don’t get sick of me.”

Speirs’s reference to a “respectful reset” comes after Tarzia made repeated reference to that phrase when pressed on ABC Radio Adelaide yesterday as to why he needed to take over the Liberal Party leadership.

“What needed to happen in the view of some out there in the community… is there needed to be a little of a respectful reset,” Tarzia said on Tuesday.

Later in the interview, Tarzia cited the “respectful reset” in his efforts to reach out to the Master Builders Association, Australian Hotels Association and the Property Council.

“It is clear that through a whole range of measures including your own publication of these measures is that now that this has occurred, that this respectful reset needed to occur,” he said.

“That’s the time that I have taken now to reset.”

InDaily has contacted Tarzia for comment.

Premier Peter Malinauskas criticised the Liberal Party’s communication strategy at a press conference today but said he has wished Tarzia well in his new role.

“Suffice to say only the South Australian Liberals could come up with a plan to have the deputy leader put the current leader in hiding to find a way to explain what the former leader will be doing about their own status in the Liberal Party,” he said.

“That strikes me as unique to the South Australian Liberal Party.”