Joseph Muscat – Adrian Vassallo’s ‘misinterpretation is regrettable’

Opposition leader Joseph Muscat has said Labour MP Adrian Vassallo's "misinterpretation" of comments he made on the free vote on divorce was regrettable, after Vassallo branded the PL leader dictatorial'.

Muscat described his most conservative MP as a "hardworking constituency MP", after Vassallo - a Catholic-conservative member of the Labour party who sent in his resignation letter to the PL but still sits on the Opposition's bench - claimed on Bondiplus on Thursday that Muscat "does not even look at [him] inside Parliament".

"Dr Vassallo is a hardworking constituency MP. We are convinced that, as he himself repeated, Dr Vassallo will continue to respect his mandate. Any misinterpretation is regrettable as the Labour Party respects the work of all its MPs," Muscat told MaltaToday.

Vassallo prolifically broke ranks with Labour when Muscat took a leading role in favour of divorce, even though he did not commit the party to a stance, although the MP - who is elected on the ninth district - was never comfortable with the party's new 'progressive' label. He has since declared he will not seek re-election.

However the MP has also been absent from Labour parliamentary group meetings since before the election of Joseph Muscat in 2008, and has since been absent from most parliamentary sittings.

While Muscat gave his MPs a free vote on the divorce bill that was tabled in the House following the divorce referendum, Vassallo said he had taken umbrage with the Labour leader's public stance that MPs voting against divorce "would face the consequences of their actions".

Vassallo said he interpreted this as an attack. "Insulting an MP just for voting against divorce is certainly not a 'moderate' stance... to me it's communist," Vassallo said.

Vassallo's conservatism has often made headlines, for the wrong reasons. His PQ over whether the screening of pornographic movies in hotel rooms was legal or not generated a lot of mirth.

He would later claim he'd rather live in Iran, where blasphemy is outlawed, in a reaction to the TV station 'Jimmy' and its late-night programming on bordellos and the porn industry - and a recent movie he had the displeasure of seeing: Choke, the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's eponymous book, which features the cloning of a man from the Holy Prepuce... Jesus Christ's foreskin.

The digital TV provider has since removed Jimmy from its programming.

It was clear that Vassallo's conservative right-wing views no longer have a place inside Labour: "This is a government that claims to be conservative - as I am after all - but then closes its eyes to such things as lap dancing clubs and whether these dancers have work permits."