CANBERRA (BLOOMBERG) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would quit politics if he lost the leadership, he told News Corp Sunday newspapers.

He made the comments after conservative lawmaker Tony Abbott continued his criticism of the nation's direction under Turnbull, who toppled Abbott as prime minister in a 2015 ballot of Liberal party lawmakers and has been trailing the opposition Labor Party in opinion poles.

"When I cease to be prime minister, I will cease to be a member of parliament," Turnbull told the papers. "I am not giving anyone else advice, but I just think that's what I would do." Turnbull led the Liberal-National coalition to a razor-thin election victory last year. His policy agenda has faced road blocks ever since, and he is trying to get spending cuts through a parliament where non-government lawmakers hold the balance of power.