Khairy’s remarks, made to reporters while on a visit to Johor today, is the latest case of fallout from Umno’s decision last week to retract support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the Perikatan Nasional government.

“I am still loyal to Umno. I am a minister from Umno. Let me work on the vaccination exercise,” said Khairy who is a cabinet member in the PN government and the minister coordinating the national immunisation programme.

He said that he and other MPs from Umno would make their stand about Muhyiddin and the PN government when the Dewan Rakyat sits again in September.

“And after we vote (to determine the legitimacy of the government) we will decide what is next,” said Khairy, who is MP for Rembau and a former Umno Youth leader.

He said his trust in party leader Zahid had been eroded by incidents such as a letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last year and a leaked audio recording involving Zahid and Anwar.

Khairy recalled that Zahid had written to the King last October, stating that Umno MPs would back Anwar, who is opposition leader and PKR president, as the next prime minister.

“This was despite the fact that the (Umno) president had not sought my views, and nor had I given him the nod to use my name (in the letter). How can I trust a party president like this,” he told reporters today after a visit to the Iskandar Malaysia Studio in Johor.

Copies of the letter had circulated online last year, but an aide to Zahid had later claimed that the letter was fake.

Zahid was purported to have said that he, former Umno president Najib Razak and several other Umno MPs had retracted their support for Muhyiddin and were backing Anwar instead.

Khairy went on to say that a leaked audio recording in April, purportedly featuring Zahid and Anwar, had also led to his distrust of Zahid.

He said Zahid had initially denied the matter and said he would lodge a police report, only to later admit that the recording was authentic.

“So how can I trust my president?”

Last month, Utusan Malaysia reported that Zahid had admitted to party leaders that it was his voice in a recording of a phone conversation with Anwar.

Both Zahid and Anwar had denied in April they were the ones in the audio recording. The conversation allegedly took place after Umno’s annual general assembly and gave the impression that the two leaders were working together.

Khairy also said that Zahid had claimed that the recent decision to withdraw Umno’s support for the PN government had been reached unanimously by the Umno Supreme Council.

However, he said there were MPs on the central working committee who had dissented.