Yesterday’s wide-ranging reshuffling of the shadow cabinet yielded more than a swapping of roles among MPs, it was also a carefully calculated exercise aimed at weeding out the people within the party prone to leaking sensitive information to harm the party and its new leadership.

With the rift within the party’s parliamentary group still very much evident, this newspaper is reliably informed by a number of sources within the party that the meetings held between the party’s leadership and prospective shadow cabinet members were organised in such a way as to determine exactly who would respect confidentiality and who would succumb to the temptation to leak the information.

One source told this newspaper yesterday, “The leadership now knows with certainty who can be trusted and those who aren’t trustworthy because they leaked information about their fellow MPs.”

This newspaper is also informed that those who were exposed by the exercise were called in to Dar Centrali and were confronted by the party’s leadership over the matter.

While most at the PN HQ were tight-lipped over the covert exercise, another source, asked whether the PN would be taking action on the matter and if those who leaked would face disciplinary actions, said that the party will need to wait for the outcome of the exercise before considering any action.

Still another source observed, “Voters aren’t stupid. They know who is toeing the party line and who is not and they will make up their minds whether to support them or not in the next General Election.”

The reshuffle