Labour MPs have refused to say whether they agreed with the Speaker's decision not to name a hall in parliament house after murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and only said that this was Farrugia's prerogative.

The request to name a hall after the journalist was put forward by Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, but Speaker Anglu Farrugia said that the move could be seen as "eroding the impartiality" of Parliament. Farrugia said he does not believe that any part of the Parliament building should be named after any person.

The Malta Independent spoke to a number of MPs, all of whom happen to be Cabinet members, as they entered the building on Wednesday.

OPM Minister Carmelo Abela said the reasons given by the Speaker were clear and, ultimately, he is the head of Parliament, so the decision rests with him.

Reforms Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar said Farrugia is the President of the House of Representatives, so it was his decision to make.

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said, "irrespectively of whether I agree or not, there is a law regulating the Parliamentary Service, and which gives important autonomy to Parliament. This was the Speaker's decision. There might be differing ideas, but this was his prerogative."

Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli said the Speaker has an independent role, "and I cannot dictate what he should or should not do."

Education Minister Owen Bonnici said: "The Speaker said we do not have a tradition of naming halls after people. That was his argument as I understood it. We do not have a hall named after important people in our political history, like Manuel Dimech. I bow my head down to his decision."

Culture Minister Jose Herrera also insisted that this was the Speaker's prerogative and the government did not go into the issue. He added, however, that he was have had no objection had the Speaker accepted the request.

The Malta Independent also asked former PM Joseph Muscat whether he had met his former Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, since December but, once again, Muscat refused to give comments to the media.