A senior Australian MP was filmed writhing on a footpath and swearing into a phone after apparently mixing prescription drugs and alcohol. 

Barnaby Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, was seen lying on the street late at night with his feet in a planter box, slurring the words “dead f---ing c--- ” while reportedly on a call to his wife.

His political future seems in doubt as National MPs discuss whether the shadow minister for veterans’ affairs should be dropped from the frontbench.

“I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100 per cent right,” he told Seven, an Australian broadcaster, on Monday.

“I’m not looking for sympathy and I’m not looking for an excuse. I’ll just stand by that. What I said is what I said.

“I came back, I sat on a planter box, I fell off, and I was videotaped. There you go. What else can you say?”

In a previous statement to Daily Mail Australia, which obtained the footage of the incident, Mr Joyce did not make any mention of prescription drugs or alcohol.

He told the newspaper that he had been walking back from a late session of parliament when he tripped over.

The shadow minister explained the profanities by saying he was “very animatedly… referring to myself for having fallen over”. He added: “If I had known someone was there with a camera, I would have got up quicker.”

Vikki Campion, Mr Joyce’s wife, said it was “disgusting” that the person who shot the footage had not helped her husband as he lay on the street.

David Littleproud, the leader of Mr Joyce’s party, has previously issued a statement of support for Mr Joyce saying he had explained himself and will not be demoted.

However, Nationals frontbencher Anne Webster has warned that the incident will tarnish the party among female voters, saying they already had a “women problem”.

Tania Lawrence, a Labour MP, likened Mr Joyce to a “living, breathing caricature of Sir Les Patterson”, the alcoholic, lecherous character created by comedian Barry Humphries.

“We are under the spotlight and we should be acting accordingly,” she told the Australian parliament on Monday.

“And if we can’t, then we must also be able to understand that there isn’t a single member here who is irreplaceable.”