In their latest attempt to feign disapproval of the Government’s historic deal with Bassadone, Mr Bossino has re-stated some questions, the answers to which the Government agrees are pertinent to make abundantly clear.

In his hasty accusation of the Chief Minister having misled Parliament – a heinous untruth which should be withdrawn – Mr Bossino himself has misrepresented the fact that he was outside the Chamber at the time that the Chief Minister’s answer was given, presumably working in his private capacity to make profit for the very same firm that advised Bassadone in this negotiation. The fact is that both Mr Bossino and his legal and Parliamentary colleague Mr Azzopardi are now embroiled in a very serious conflict of interest which THEY are trying to hide from the public with their continued conflation of figures and obfuscation of the truth.

Contrary to the obvious lie in their latest Press Release, Question 1000/2024 put to the Chief Minister by Mr Bossino in Parliament was: ‘How much has been paid by the Government in respect of the properties it is renting from the Bassadone Group in the dockyard area to date?’

Mr Bossino was given the exact figure that he requested – ‘the Government has paid a total of £610,866.69 in rent to date in respect of the property rented from the Bassadone Group in the dockyard area.’ Any attempt by the GSD to claim otherwise is in itself a very serious misleading of Parliament that should be immediately withdrawn.

Regarding their own fundamental question ‘– who, in the end, benefits from this deal?’, the answer is extremely simple: Mr Bossino and Mr Azzopardi by way of their own law firm’s involvement in the deal, in addition to the Government workers and the public they serve.

The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo KC MP, said: ‘Whilst I am doing, Mr Bossino is just criticising. Whilst I am investing in the best offices for our public servants and for the public that interact with them, Mr Bossino is trying to make the best deal done for rental of Government property into something somehow negative - despite the fact that he and his firm are the ones who have benefited from the negotiation of the contract for Bassadone. Whilst I am concentrating on building new homes for our people, Mr Bossino is playing political games that do nothing for our people. I will keep doing and I look forward to hearing Mr Bossino's continuous pernicious narrative. It will get him nowhere but further into the political gutter in which he wallows. Finally, I trust that, contrary to their actions to date, in breach of Parliamentary rules, both Mr Bossino and his erstwhile leader, Mr Azopardi, will declare their conflicts of interests when they next deal with this matter in Parliament.’