The Labour Party has insisted that MP Jason Azzopardi’s claims that the salaries of parliamentary secretaries were secretly increased are a lie.

However, documents do show that parliamentary secretaries are earning a €60,000 income.

Quoting The Shift News’ series of articles, Azzopardi said:

“Salaries were doubled by stealth from 2017 (€33,895) to 2018 (€60,796). Shame on all those who cried blue murder during a PN led administration for the honorarium increase. Shame on all those who cried foul pre-2013 from the MP honorarium to be added to the PS’s salary and now have had their silence bought.”

However, the PL said in a statement that Azzopardi has made contradictory claims ever since ha made the claim.

“When Azzopardi was parliamentary secretary he had a salary that was more than €82,000,” the PL said.

With regards to the story itself, the government has insisted that the increase had compared salaries from half of 2017 to those for the whole of 2018.

However, it should be noted that declared income by parliamentary secretaries for last year shows that they all (except Aaron Farrugia), declared an income of roughly €60,000.

In fact, Arnold Cassola noted in a press rebased that Silvio Parnis, Silvio Schembdocumentsri, Julia Farrugia have all declared this sum as their salary.

Azzopardi then asked Prime Minister Joseph Muscat “how the salary of his parliamentary secretaries in 2018 reach €60,000 when that was the exact same amount of income a parliamentary secretary in 2008 which included their salary and honoria for being an MP.”

It is as yet unclear what is behind the increase.