Embattled MP Moira Deeming apologises to supporters in social media video

Liberal MP Moira Deeming has apologised to her supporters for "distractions", ahead of a crucial court battle to decide her political future. The MP is trying to stop the state executive from taking her off the ballot at the next state election. after she refused to apologise to Matthew Guy for an assault allegation that was later dismissed. What's next? A one-day trial will be held later this month to allow Mrs Deeming to argue her case. Moira Deeming has conceded that "distractions" have taken away from the Liberal Party's efforts to represent Victorians, after the MP went to the Supreme Court in a bid to retain her candidacy for the November state election. The Liberal Party state executive was due to meet last Friday to vote on revoking the MP's preselection, after she refused to apologise to former Opposition Leader Matthew Guy when Victoria Police dismissed her claim he put her in a headlock. A one-day trial later this month will hear her allegations that the party's plans to remove her denied her procedural fairness, though she was invited to address the party executive. In a video posted to her social media pages this afternoon, Mrs Deeming thanked supporters for sticking by her. "I hope you know you can still trust me," she said. "I think it's time that I address the fact that there have been so many distractions, so many huge distractions that have taken away from the work that you as my constituents and Victorians really needed to be done. "I am genuinely so, so sorry that all of these things over the past three and a half years have happened." Supreme Court battle with state executive still to come Mrs Deeming said the Supreme Court dispute over her preselection was being mediated behind the scenes. But Liberal sources rejected any suggestion it could be mediated and are determined to remove her as the candidate. Documents released by the court today revealed that Mrs Deeming was seeking to have four members of the state executive, who are not factionally aligned to her, barred from ruling on her preselection because of what she called actual or perceived bias. Mrs Deeming further argued she should have first been dealt with through an internal party disciplinary process.