PN Leader Simon Busuttil yesterday blasted former PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino for "giving the impression" that he had visited him at his house recently to invite him to rejoin the party and, while confirming that he had made the offer in the past,  made it amply clear that it no longer stands.

But in reply, Dr Pullicino Orlando insisted today that he could not have possibly been a PN MP at the time. If he was still in the PN, Simon Busuttil would not have invited him to rejoin the party.

A few days ago, Dr Pullicino Orlando said on the Labour party's television station that he had declined the offer made by Simon Busuttil. He did not actually say when the meeting took place. "There was one occasion when Simon Busutti expressed his wish to meet me, despite what I had gone through in the PN. I appreciated his request and was honoured to welcome him at my house. He explained that he wanted to see me go back to the PN but I told him that I could never have a future within a party that had, in my opinion, become hijacked by a conservative element."

When contacted by The Malta Independent yesterday, Dr Busuttil confirmed that he had visited Dr Pullicino Orlando at his home but said that, contrary to the impression the former MP tried to give, the meeting was held quite some time ago.

"The last time I visited Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's house, he was still a PN MP and I was not party leader. So the impression he gives that I visited him recently is totally false." 
Dr Busuttil said he is constantly working to win back lost votes but this does not apply for Dr Pullicino Orlando. "Let me make this clear. I am personally committed to go out and get back to the fold each and every one of those who felt let down by the party. And I do this every day. But Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando crossed the line and breached trust, which is a fundamental principle for me. So for us, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is a closed chapter and Joseph Muscat can keep him."

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando today sent the following reply to The Malta Independent. "Dr. Simon Busuttil is incorrect in saying that I was still a Nationalist MP when he invited me to rejoin the Partit Nazzjonalista. It would not make sense for him to ask me to rejoin an entity I was still a part of. During the meeting we had at my house he told me that he felt that the PN had sinned against me more than I had sinned against the PN and that he wanted me to reconsider my position. I explained that my mind was made up and that I feel I have wasted enough of my time on his party.

Saying that 'Joseph Muscat can keep me' after I have made it abundantly clear that I have no intention of rejoining his party is as ridiculous as when the PN Executive Committee decided to issue a statement saying I was prohibited from contesting the General Elections on the PN ticket a year after I had publicly declared that I had absolutely no intention of doing so.

I believe that the task Dr. Busuttil is faced with, reforming a party which has been humiliated at the polls repetitively, is as daunting as cleaning the mythological Augean stables. He should focus on what is really needed to rejuvenate a party brought to its knees by the arrogant clique he still chooses to defend rather than waste his time on futile and petty polemics.  I can assure him that I have better things to do and that I have nothing further to add about this topic. "

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando resigned from the PN in July 2012. Trouble had started as early as 2008, when the former MP clashed with the government over plans for an underground extension to the St John's Co-Cathedral museum. In July 2010 he rocked the boat again when he presented a Private Members Bill on the introduction of divorce, which was not backed by the PN. He eventually went on to become one of the pro-divorce movement's leading campaigners. In June 2012 Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando voted in favour of an Opposition motion calling for the resignation of the permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana.

A month later he resigned from the party, becoming an independent MP. The frail, one-seat majority Gonzi administration finally collapsed when another 'renegade' PN MP, Franco Debono, voted against the budget in December 2012. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who was appointed MCST Chairman by the PN administration, was seen celebrating the PL's landslide victory in March 2013 and was even seen entering Castille when the new government was sworn-in. He remained a very vocal critic of the Nationalist Party.