The Egrant saga is just a national farce, Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri said, and is aimed at deflecting the people's attention from the wealth being generated by the government. "The Egrant issue is just a hullaballoo built on lies", she said.

According to Dr Schembri, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil is using his position to attack the Prime Minister, his wife, his family and also the financial services industry, which is the bread and butter of thousands of Maltese. "He is causing great damage to the country, and does not give two hoots of leaving casualties for his political gain," she said.

Addressing a press conference called specifically, according to Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis, to discuss "Busuttil's character", Dr Schembri described the Opposition Leader as "an expert in dirt" and "personifies dirty politics".

"What Simon Busuttil is doing exposes him as a person who is unscrupulous, negative and a liar," she said, "Busuttil is "inventing" issues aimed to tarnish the Prime Minister and the people around him."

Calling him a hypocrite, Minister Zammit Lewis told the press that Dr Busuttil is a shareholder of a company called 'GS Limited', which received government contracts under the PN administration. He said that he was also a director of the company until July 2013. The Minister emphasized that, at the time when he was director of the company he was also an MEP.  

The Minister said that a financial report from 2015 and an annual report from 2009 for the companies GS Limited as well as GS Services Limited show that the auditor, Bailey Audit Services, had not signed off on the accounts.

When asked for his reaction to this matter, Dr Busuttil said that the Labour Party should be seeking the truth, rather than defending Dr Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri. They should "not let Joseph Muscat drag down the Labour Party," he said.  

The press conference was called a day after Dr Busuttil said that the Prime Minister should resign after he revealed that OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri took kickbacks from Nexia BT's Brian Tonna on the sale of citizenship to foreigners. Mr Schembri is denying the accusations and said he will sue Dr Busuttil for libel.