Labour MP Robert Abela has said he would have fired Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri as soon as the Panama Papers broke out three years ago had he been Prime Minister.

“My response is yes,” Abela said, when asked on TVM’s Insights what he would have done had he been in Joseph Muscat’s shoes back in 2016.

When asked by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi why he didn’t air his views in Parliament, Abela said that he had made his position clear internally a while ago.

Abela has often been touted as a potential successor to Joseph Muscat but gave no indication of such ambitions last night.

Ahead of tonight’s protest outside Parliament, Abela decried the way protestors had thrown eggs and other projectiles at MPs’ cars last week.

“I’ll be in Parliament today to do my job. As an MP who has always carried out his work loyally and honestly, I expect that I won’t be subjected to acts of violence.”

“I won’t accept having to exit through the back door of Parliament again. The police had to escort us about because the crowd would have pounced on us otherwise.”

Abela accused Azzopardi of instigating the crowd out of purely political reasons, noting that the PN MP had been caught saying that he had been waiting for this moment for six years as protestors surrounded Justice Minister Owen Bonnici’s car.

“I’ve always maintained that your interest isn’t in ensuring justice for Daphne Caruana Galzia but in destabilising Malta,” he said.