[WATCH] Opposition walks out of Parliament after Muscat avoids questions on Schembri, Mizzi

The Opposition has walked out of Parliament after Joseph Muscat refused to say whether he was going to dismiss his chief of staff Keith Schembri and government minister Konrad Mizzi.

The Prime Minister insisted that Schembri and Mizzi’s names “had not come up” during the latest developments which saw Yorgen Fenech arrested by the police early today. Fenech has resigned from Electrogas and from the directorships of his family’s companies.

Asked by PN MP Robert Arrigo whether he would remove Schembri and Mizzi, Muscat at first avoided the question, saying the developments in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder investigations had shown the law favoured nobody.

“They asked me to resign. I have been saying for two years that I would resign. Don’t worry, the time for that will come. And I have the embarrassment of choice when it comes to who my replacement will be,” Muscat said.

He emphasised that he would be taking all necessary leadership decisions and would shoulder all responsibility “for better or for worse”.

Muscat said he would be, when the time comes, giving “all the information which I couldn’t give in the past two years.” He said that in coming parliamentary sessions - likely next week - he would be giving detailed information on what had transpired and would be submitting this for the scrutiny of the room, including through discussing with the Opposition.

Pressed by Arrigo to say whether he would be getting rid of Schembri and Mizzi, Muscat said he would take decisions and was never afraid of doing so, but that “decisions must be based on facts.”