Joseph Muscat has announced that he will resign as a member of parliament.

The former Prime Minister said in a short adjournment speech on Monday, the first day when Parliament reconvened after the summer recess, that he will be stepping down from Parliament.

In his final speech - which barely took two minutes - Muscat read out his resignation letter, which was then handed to Speaker Anglu Farrugia.

Muscat said that he is "proud" of the service he gave to the best of his abilities as Prime Minister over two tenures, as Opposition leader and as an MP.

"I am proud that for two of these legislature I was shouldering the responsibility of the biggest number of votes that any member of this House had", Muscat said.

He said that while it is in his nature that he wanted to do more, and do more better, and to avoid mistakes and carry out more changes, he is satisfied to have contributed "so that the country today is in a better and stronger state than it ever was."

On his part, the Speaker Anglu Farrugia, visibly shocked by the announcement, wished Muscat and his family well in his future endeavours. 

Muscat departs Parliament after 12 years in the House and a further 4 years as a Member of the European Parliament. He served as Prime Minister for seven of those years before announcing his resignation in December 2019 under the cloud of Malta's biggest political crisis in its history brought about by the arrest of Yorgen Fenech and his then long-time Chief of Staff Keith Schembri in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Fenech now stands charged with complicity in the journalist's murder. Schembri was released some days after his arrest.