Parliament does not pay for partners accompanying MPs on international duties, Speaker clarifies

The Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia has clarified that parliament does not pay for partners accompanying MPs on international duties.

Farrugia was reacting to a ONE News article which claimed Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi travelled with his partner for a number of times with her expenses being paid by parliament.

The Labour Party media house was wrongly quoting an article by newspaper Illum, which revealed that in court proceedings during Azzopardi’s separation from his former wife, the MP had confirmed that he had travelled abroad with his new partner 34 times.

When questioned by the court as to how he had funded his travels, Azzopardi stated that expenses were forked out by third parties.

Despite his claim, a list seen by Illum showed that around 20 trips were funded by parliament as part of his duties as MP. Nowhere in the article did it say that parliament funded his partner's expenses.

Illum also revealed that when he was junior minister, Azzopardi was allowed to use services at the Excelsior Hotel for free. Such services included gym facilities, a room and breakfast whenever he wanted.

Azzopardi has already suspended himself from the Nationalist Party, after it emerged that a Hilton Hotel stay in Tel Aviv in March 2017 had been paid for by Ray Fenech, one of the directors of the Tumas Group – a business group which Yorgen Fenech, now alleged mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, was also part of.

Azzopardi will remain suspended until the PN’s ethics board concludes its investigation.

He has since denied the allegations, calling them the work of an agenda against him.

“I note that an article has been published about me with a clear agenda, an article overflowing with inventions, half-truths and facts that have nothing to do with each other,” Azzopardi said.

READ ALSO: Jason Azzopardi made use of free Hilton services during 2008 election campaign