Megan Levy

November 4, 2011 - 10:27AM

Bill Shorten ... Says he never wants to be leader.

Labor factional warlord Bill Shorten insists he will never be interested in leading the party as speculation mounts that he is being sounded out as a possible replacement for embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

When questioned about his leadership aspirations today, the assistant treasurer said he "never, ever" wanted to lead the Labor Party.

"Any of this discussion about leadership is aimed around destabilising Julia Gillard and I am not going to, in any fashion, give any oxygen to any destabilisation of a leader," Mr Shorten told radio station 3AW today.

"As much as people like to put out a view that politicians are robots waiting to be programmed from some sort of mothership in outer space, that's not how it works."

Labor backbenchers told The Australian Financial Review that Ms Gillard's leadership was being tested by Labor MPs fearing an electoral backlash over moves to impose restrictions on poker machines.

While Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was touted for a possible return, waters were being tested for a move to install Mr Shorten, the unnamed backbenchers claimed.

"The bring back Kevin stuff is nowhere near the truth, no one's doing the numbers for him, even his closest allies think the story is so wrong it's almost hilarious," one backbencher said, referring to newspaper reports of MPs urging Mr Rudd to challenge this month.

"But we can't go to the election with a primary vote of 30 per cent. Shorten's our best bet."

Another backbencher said: "Shorten's firming and look how good he's been this week.

But Mr Shorten poured cold water on those claims today, saying her had no leadership ambition and would not fuel the rumours.

He said no one within the Labor Party had approached him about about the possibility of leading the party.

"Never. It is not correct. The story isn't correct," he said, adding that people were frankly "sick of politicians bagging each other on their own team".

"There is no leadership challenge on by anyone in the Labour Party," Mr Shorten said.

"Let's be very clear. Julia Gillard is the right woman for the right time in Australia. We're seeing really complex economic circumstances in Europe. She's over there making sure that the G20, the club of the biggest economic nations in the world, are doing the right thing. This week through her leadership we got Qantas back in the air. She's the right leader for the right time, full stop."

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey, however, said he did not believe Mr Shorten's claim that he would "never, ever" be interested in the top job.

"There's two secrets that are badly kept in Canberra," Mr Hockey said.

"One is the ambition of Kevin Rudd to return and his dislike for Julia Gillard, and the second is Bill Shorten's ambition to become leader of the Labor Party."

Never, ever: Bill Shorten Labor leadership claims | Julia Gillard