After the 1969 election, Gorton was unsuccessfully challenged for the Liberal leadership by McMahon and National Development Minister David Fairbairn. With the Liberals falling further behind Labor in the polls in 1971, a challenge was launched in March when Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser resigned. Fraser had strongly supported Gorton for the leadership two years earlier, but now attacked Gorton on the floor of parliament in his resignation speech, saying that Gorton was "not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister."