Government MPs have voted against having Parliament scrutinise the behaviour of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, the Nationalist Party said in a statement.

A vote taken in Parliament on Wednesday effectively ruled out this possibility as the government MPs voted against a motion by the Opposition to reverse a ruling given by the Speaker last week. That time, Dr Anglu Farrugia had ruled that no motion could be presented against Mr Schembri and, instead, it should be directed as the person politically responsible for him, in this case the Prime Minister.

Tuesday’s vote, the PN said, means that the questions that need to be raised on Keith Schembri will not be answered.

The government’s behaviour contrasts sharply with that of the Nationalist Party when in government, which had accepted without reservations a motion to censure Malta’s permanent representative in the European Union, who also had a position of trust similar to the one Mr Schembri occupies.

But Joseph Muscat put his personal interests before everything else, the PN said.

Tuesday’s vote means government MPs put the PM’s chief of staff beyond Parliament’s scrutiny, confirming what the PN has been saying all along that he is “untouchable”.