Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is preparing to order a radical investigation into the future of the Liberal Party, going beyond a standard post-election review, as she seeks to rebuild it after its historic electoral loss.

The party is also expected to set up a shorter and narrower review to assess the error-ridden 2025 campaign that resulted in the Coalition holding just 43 seats in the lower house.

Four senior party sources said Ley’s view was that a more radical examination of the party was needed, including a look at its ailing state divisions, campaign tools, brand and messaging.

The sources, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak publicly about internal party talks, said final decisions on the two reviews had not yet been formalised. But the party’s federal executive will discuss the reviews at a meeting next week ahead of an address Ley will make to the National Press Club on June 25.

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Ley has told colleagues that Queensland senator James McGrath would be a suitable candidate to spearhead the wider review.

McGrath, viewed as a sharp electoral strategist, first floated the prospect of a special commission of inquiry in an interview with this masthead shortly after the election. His idea gained momentum inside the party, and Ley appointed McGrath, who is contentious in some Liberal quarters due to his support for Malcolm Turnbull over Tony Abbott, to the opposition cabinet as shadow special minister of state.

“The party needs to get its shit together,” McGrath said last month, pointing to the regeneration in the British Conservatives in the 2000s that focused on making its core values relevant to a modern society. “This is not about shifting right or left.”

Ley’s office was contacted for comment.