In a statement, the Labour Party claimed that during the election campaign, PN leader Simon Busuttil chose to hide the facts related to the scandalous increase the ministers accepted during the last legislature.

When pushed to publish the information related to the issue, Dr Busuttil failed to do so and kept on hiding the facts from public scrutiny.

“This once again goes to show that Dr Busuttil has learnt nothing from the scandal related to the secret increase, something the PN, while in government, tried to do underhandedly.

“To add insult to injury, the PN, at the time, was increasing the water and electricity tariffs,” the statement read.

“Through a parliamentary question brought up yesterday, it emerged that the ministers and parliamentary secretaries accepted an increase totalling €1.6 million, where only €300,000 were paid back.

“It also transpires that what the PN said during the election campaign, that the increase was paid back in full, is a blatant lie.

“Dr Busuttil was aware about this since, back in November 2012, he had publicly stated that the issued was a closed chapter,” the statement read.