Chris Fearne sends driver to pack up his belongings at health ministry

A badly bruised Chris Fearne has instructed his driver to pack up his belongings at the health ministry, MaltaToday is informed.

The deputy prime minister yesterday failed to turn up at Robert Abela’s inaugural speech at the Labour Party congress after Saturday’s defeat.

Sources said Fearne has not left his house and asked his driver to pack up his belongings at the ministry, in what is being interpreted as a sign of his reluctance to continue serving as minister.

Ministry officials and Fearne’s campaign aides are understood to be angered by his failure to make an appearance and thank his staff.

It remains unclear what Fearne’s future in Abela’s Cabinet will be with sources suggesting that the new prime minister may offer him a different ministry.

Abela reached out to Fearne in his inaugural speech telling him that they will work together. “From now on I do not want to hear of Chris’s people, or Robert’s people. We are all children of the same party,” Abela said. 

Attempts to contact Fearne have proved futile.

The deputy prime minister started the leadership campaign ahead of his rival and was certain that he would win.

But over five weeks, Abela’s simple grassroots campaign saw him eclipse Fearne and win by a landslide.