Malta Labour Party Leader Joseph Muscat confirmed on Saturday night that he will replace Joseph Cuschieri in Parliament as he becomes MP and Opposition Leader on 1 October.

The Labour leader's declaration came a few days after The Malta Independent indicated Mr Cuschieri as the MP who would probably relinquish his seat for his leader. During a party activity, Dr Muscat revealed the correspondence between Mr Cuschieri and himself.

In a letter sent on Friday Mr Cuschieri informed Dr Muscat that he would be resigning from parliament on 29 September out of “a sense of duty and loyalty”. The MLP leader accepted Mr Cuschieri’s move and described it as an “extraordinary and generous decision” in a letter sent on Saturday.

It was a very “difficult decision” to take, said Mr Cuschieri, but he took it “with a clean conscience and for the love of the party and the country”. He told party supporters he wanted his act to serve as a “clear and strong message to forget personal ambitions and glorification to work together within our beloved party”. He added that the country needed a Labour government more than ever.

Mr Cuschieri said he was not retiring from politics, but just taking “a necessary pause in the party’s and country's interests”. He promised to continue working in his constituents' best interests.

The Labour leader said Mr Cuschieri's act was “a sign of absolute loyalty to our ideals”. His decision, said Dr Muscat, showed that the ideal Mr Cuschieri believed in was bigger than the person. He said the MLP should be proud to have people like him in its ranks and urged him to keep working in the party.

On Thursday, Dr Muscat will resign from the European Parliament where he has been active since June 2004. His resignation will trigger the process for a by-election for his post which will expire next year as EP elections will be held on 13 June. His two most likely replacements are Glenn Bedingfield or Joe Debono Grech.

Dr Muscat will be taking his oath as Member of Parliament on Wednesday 1 October, two days after Mr Cuschieri's farewell speech during adjournment on Monday 29 September. Immediately afterwards, Dr Muscat will proceed to the state rooms of the President's Palace to be sworn in as Opposition Leader.

Mr Cuschieri, 40, ran for parliament for the first time in 1996. He was successful on his second bid in 1998 when he won the casual election for the seat on the 10th electoral district vacated by Evarist Bartolo.

He was returned to parliament in 2003 and 2008 through casual elections, replacing Mr Bartolo on the 10th district in each election.

This means that Dr Muscat will be taking up a seat which was originally vacated by one of the contenders for party leadership following the resignation of Alfred Sant from the party’s top spot.

Mr Cuschieri’s resignation does not jeopardise his eligibility for receiving a pension as an MP, as he served in parliament for more than two legislatures or an aggregate 65 months, as contemplated by the Members of Parliament Pensions Act.

The Sliema-born MP has been active in the MLP for over 20 years. He was an active member of the young socialist league.

In 1987 he joined Malta Shipbuilding and remained there until 1992. He was very much involved in the setting up of the party radio station Super One Radio, where he worked as a journalist and covered then leader Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici during the 1992 campaign trail.

He was for a time the MLP parliamentary group representative on the party's executive committee and is the current MLP spokesman for public works.

Previously he shadowed tourism. Mr Cuschieri is the younger brother of former party president Manwel Cuschieri.