Minister Konrad Mizzi has admitted that he paid a visit to Dubai in August 2015, the same month in which attempts were allegedly made to set up Dubai bank accounts for companies he and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri opened in Panama.

Mizzi has always insisted that a bank account linked to his Panamanian company was never on the cards, and that financial consultants Nexia BT must have been acting on its own volition.

In reply to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Nationalist MP Simon Busuttil, Mizzi acknowledged that he had been in Dubai in August 2015, and in February and in November of 2016 on government business.

Taking to Twitter yesterday morning, Busuttil stated, “In reply to my PQ yesterday, Minister Konrad Mizzi admitted for the first time that he WAS in Dubai in August 2015. Panama Papers had exposed that he was to travel there to open a bank account.”