Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Robert Abela has said that he has asked Chris Cardona to resign from his role as the Labour Party's Deputy Leader.

The news comes as Cardona continues to be implicated in the compilation of evidence in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder cases.

"Over the past few hours, I spoke to Chris Cardona and communicated my wish that he no longer remains Labour Party deputy leader. He will be resigning in the coming hours and subsequently a contest for deputy leader will take place", Abela told MaltaToday on Tuesday, after a Cabinet meeting.

Cardona has been resisting calls to step down after he was mentioned in witness testimonies over the past two weeks.

His name was mentioned by both pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma and by Johann Cremona in a testimony yesterday.

Cardona is alleged to have paid for Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder, using his canvasser, Anthony Chetcuti, known as il-Biglee, as the middleman with Alfred Degiorgio, one of the three charged hitmen.Cardona and lawyer David Gatt are also alleged to have made €400,000 available to the murderers by the start of the jury.

Cardona has denied all of the allegations, calling them lies and a frame-up.

The former Economy Minister was not appointed to Abela's Cabinet in January and resigned as a member of parliament last April, but retained his role as deputy leader of the Labour Party.

The news that Abela has asked Cardona to step down comes after he put the ball in Cardona's park. 

When asked by The Malta Independent whether he would tell Cardona to step down from the party, Abela replied that he was sure that Cardona would take all the necessary decisions in order for the party not to be harmed.

Asked multiple times after that, Abela stuck to the same line. 

After playing coy on his intentions for a week or so, Cardona last Sunday said he would not be resigning from the party role. 

However, the former MP will now be vacating his post within the coming hours, according to the PM. 

In a first reaction, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said that Cardona should have resigned or forced to leave long ago. He should now be investigated, Delia said.