‘Hello it’s John Howard calling’: former PM says Liberal party asked him to ‘campaign extensively’

The Liberal party is using John Howard to spearhead a last-ditch push in key marginal seats where Scott Morrison is on the nose. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

Australians might have been sitting down for dinner about 7pm on Monday, or tuning in to the news, but for those living in marginal seats there was a chance they were interrupted – by the former prime minister John Howard.

“Hello it’s John Howard calling from Sydney for the Liberal party,” were the words voters in seats such as North Sydney, Wentworth and Hughes heard when they answered their landlines and mobile phones.