Liberal turncoat Craig Kelly will face a grassroots challenge from “We are Hughes” candidate Linda Seymour, ratcheting up the already difficult task he faces to stay in Parliament.

Ms Seymour was named as the grassroots candidate for Hughes on Sunday and is the latest in a series of “Voices of” or “We are” candidates targeting Liberals across the country.

The unifying issues for these candidates are typically climate, integrity in government and community issues such as communications.

And like other similar candidates in seats such as Hume, North Sydney and Kooyong, they typically draw their inspiration from Cathy McGowan and then her successor Helen Haines in the Victorian rural seat of Indi, Rebekha Sharkie in South Australia’s Mayo and Zali Steggall in the Sydney seat of Warringah.

Ahead of the announcement, Ms Seymour said fighting for greater action to mitigate climate change was one of the key motivators for founding the group.

Mr Kelly’s views on vaccination, and the lack of an integrity commission at a federal election were key drivers too.

“We had this member of parliament going into schools and telling kids that climate change isn’t real. And of course he has become more and more outrageous and the local branch was overridden [in bitter pre-selection battles] to keep him there,” she said.

“It’s embarrassing having Craig Kelly as our representative. We have a very high level of vaccination in Hughes, so those texts he sends out are a reminder every time that this guy is our representative.”