Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has hit out at former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, describing him as “sad”.

“Malcolm’s got an axe to grind. I think it’s sad,” Dutton told Sydney radio host Ray Hadley on Thursday.

It follows fiery comments from Turnbull on Network Ten’s The Project on Sunday night that have reportedly sparked fresh calls from senior Liberals for the former PM to be expelled from the party.

Turnbull told The Project that he thought Dutton was a “thug” and any government led by him should be “contemplated with dread”.

“He’s got one tune that he plays … and that is division and animosity. I couldn’t think of anyone less suited to be prime minister of a multicultural society like Australia,” he said.

It is not the first time Turnbull has described Dutton as a thug. He also used the term to sum up the Opposition Leader in Nemesis, this year’s ABC TV documentary about the former Coalition government – also describing another former PM, Scott Morrison, as “duplicitous” at the same time.

Asked about the most recent comments on Thursday, Dutton said that “people can see through it”

“I wish him the best,” he told Hadley.

“I think he’s diminishing himself by making these comments.”

However, The Australian reported on Thursday that Turnbull’s comments had sparked fury in the Liberal Party, with some senior rank and file members writing to the NSW executive to demand his expulsion.

2GB also cited “explosive emails from high-profile Liberal Party members” calling for Turnbull to be expelled. Without naming any of the signatories, host Ben Fordham said they wrote, among other things, that it was “time for Mr Turnbull to be dismissed from the party”.

It is not the first time there has been a push to expel Turnbull from the Liberals.

There were similar calls from NSW senator Hollie Hughes and former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett after Turnbull urged Coalition supporters to vote for an independent at the 2022 federal election if they were disappointed with the Morrison government.

“I think this is built on ‘if I can’t have the prize, nobody can’ and wanting to try to ensure that Scott Morrison doesn’t see more success than perhaps he did in this role,” Hughes said at the time.