Liberal MP Jamie Briggs has admitted he bent the truth about how he injured himself on the night of the Liberal leadership spill.

In an interview with Fairfax Radio’s 2GB on Friday, Mr Briggs said he hurt his leg after attempting to tackle Tony Abbott in the PM’s office during a wild post-coup party.

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“Everyone knows that Tony Abbott is a very fit man, he’s a very strong man and I’m not at the peak of my powers, as fitness and strength is concerned, and I lost,” Mr Briggs said.

“We were mucking around, let me put it that way. I went tackle him, I ran at him and missed and the rest is history.

“I then limped back to my office and licked my wounds, and the table occurred after that, so you’re going to have to ask Joe Hockey.”

When radio host Ben Fordham probed the Minister for Cities about how a valuable Italian marble table was smashed to pieces during the party, Mr Briggs was less forthcoming.

Mr Fordham asked: “Hockey broke the table?”

Mr Briggs replied: “I’m not saying that. Hockey was still there. I don’t think you can describe it as a party, it was a wake”.

The morning after, Mr Briggs appeared in the corridors of parliament in a wheelchair, his leg elevated, clutching a crutch.

Rumours began to swirl around Parliament and on social media about how he injured himself – including that he had been dancing on the marble table.

He quickly denied these rumours on Twitter, according to ABC, posting he had “done an ACL [ligament], running”.

Mr Abbott soon put his hand up to pay for the damaged marble table.

The Libs were grilled about the damaged furniture in the Senate.

Labor senator Penny Wong asked Department of Parliamentary Services representative John Ryan about the broken table, The New Daily reported in October.

He left the hearing to reportedly brush up on what actually happened in the room, before reporting back.

The committee was told that cleaners were allegedly barred from getting into the Prime Minister’s office for two days, told there was a broken marble table inside.

Meanwhile, in another bizarre event in politics on Friday, Justice Minister Michael Keenan swallowed a fly during a live press conference.

Mr Keenan was addressing the media about a program to do with radicalisation, when the fly landed in the back of is throat, causing him to cough and splutter in front of the cameras.

Watch the vine below:

– with Toli Papadopoulos and Kaitlin Thals