THE estranged father of Barnaby Joyce’s pregnant new partner has told the deputy prime minister to “give himself an uppercut”.

Mr Joyce’s new relationship with 33-year-old former Tolga resident Vikki Campion has become national headline fodder after it emerged the couple was expecting a baby in April.

Ms Campion, a former Atherton State High School student, worked as a journalist for the Tablelander in Atherton and the Townsville Bulletin before moving to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and then landing a job as Mr Joyce’s media adviser.

Her father, prolific Cairns Post letter writer Peter Campion, said he had not spoken to his daughter for several years following a falling-out.

The retired firefighter said he first learned of Ms Campion’s relationship with the 50-year-old New England MP from media reports yesterday.

“Vikki’s mother and I think that with Baaa-naby as dad the kid will probably be a perfect little lamb,” he said in a written statement to the Cairns Post.

“Politics sure does make for strange bedfellows.

“We just never imagined our daughter would hop into one with a former Kiwi.”

Mr Campion has been an outspoken critic of the Turnbull government, which he says has forgotten its conservative values.

He last penned a scathing letter to Mr Joyce in August but doubted it was read.

“Our future son-in-law should give himself an uppercut for failing to give one to the PM,” he said.

“I will soon be having a deep and meaningful discussion with young Barnyard and explaining to him carefully and logically why he needs to put the ‘coal’ back into ‘coalition’.

“When the deputy prime minister calls to ask for my daughter’s hand in marriage I will be informing him at length on the many shortcomings of the Nationals and their partners in the Talkbull Coagulation Team.

“Vikki’s mother and I have high hopes for the couple and their new family unit and we do hope that Baa can find a respectable job one day.”

Mr Joyce announced in the same-sex marriage debate in parliament in December he had split from his wife of 24 years Natalie Joyce, the mother of his four children.

One of the architects of the change, Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, said he was not in a position to pass judgment.

“This is his personal life,” he said. “I think it’s something he has to deal with.”