The Labour Party has denied a claim that the secret company Egrant was used to fund their general election bid.

The party was referring to a request for investigation made by independent candidate Arnold Cassola to the Electoral Commission.

Cassola on Thursday morning requested the Electoral Commission to open an investigation into whether the company Egrant had bankrolled the Labour Party’s election campaign.

In his request to Electoral Commissioner Joseph Camilleri, Cassola said that the fact that Keith Schembri had inadvertently referred to the company as “E-grant” not Egrant supported the notion that this was a secret company founded in order to be a vehicle of funding for the PL.

He asked the commission to investigate whether there was any illegal fundraising through Egrant or not.

In reaction, the Labour Party said that a magisterial inquiry had been conducted about Egrant, and that its conclusions were clear and that they exclude what is being alleged by Cassola.

The party also said that it publishes it accounts and that it used to do so before laws on party financing were implemented.

Egrant was one of three companies set up by Nexia BT in 2013 mere days after the PL won the general election.

The other two – Tillgate and Hearneville – belonged to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s then chief of staff Keith Schembri and former government minister Konrad Mizzi.

The owner of Egrant remains a mystery.  Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna claims that he is the owner as the company had remained on the shelf after it was set up.

A magisterial inquiry into claims made by Daphne Caruana Galizia that the company was owned by Muscat’s wife Michelle Muscat found no proof in that regard – although it did not manage to conclude who actually owned the company.