With Federal Labor facing obliteration at the September election, senior MPs who back the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have begun circulating a petition in a last minute attempt to get the support needed to oust Julia Gillard from the top job.

Rudd supporters appear convinced that they can generate the support needed to get the former Prime Minister back into the top job based on the latest miserable set of polls which show Julia Gillard’s popularity plummet to unfathomable depths.

Yet, even if Rudd is reinstated as Prime Minister he may not even make it to September, with a number of the independents who helped Gillard form her minority government in 2010 threatening to remove their support for Labor.

Tony Windsor, who this morning announced that he was quitting Federal politics, has told reporters that his final act as a politician may be to throw his support behind Tony Abbot and the Liberal Party.

“If the Labor Party can’t get its mess together, there may be a scenario where … Tony Abbott, may in fact receive my vote,” he said.

“If it came back to the house, to test the confidence, I wouldn’t guarantee the challenger that it would naturally flow that my support would be that way.”

In a bizarre twist, maverick independent and head of his very own party Bob Katter has said that he would support the Labor party if Kevin Rudd returned as leader. If you remember he was one of the only independents who threw their support behind Tony Abbott and the Liberals in 2010.

“Prior to the ALP caucus meeting I advise that if, and only if, caucus selects Kevin Rudd then I will provide a vote of confidence to facilitate his election as leader,” Mr Katter told reporters in Canberra.

As of yet neither Kevin Rudd or Prime Minister Julia Gillard have released official statements on the brewing discord in the party but it is being reported by various sources that the petition is gathering momentum.

Kevin Rudd has consistently polled far better numbers in the preferred Prime Minister stakes since being knifed by Gillard and her conservative faction cronies. Even so, considering how badly Labor is on the nose with voters at the moment it seems unlikely that his return to Prime Minister would be enough to win the party another term in power.

KRudd and his allies have made their move about six months too late.

Image: Getty