Prime Minister Robert Abela said that with Rosianne Cutajar’s resignation, the standards of the behaviour expected from people in public life had “gone up a bar.”

Speaking to journalists outside the Labour Party’s headquarters after an executive meeting which had been convened to discuss Cutajar’s future in the party, Abela said that the message he had given to MPs was of “discipline and seriousness.”

Cutajar resigned from the Labour Party parliamentary group on Monday evening, sending an email to the Prime Minister 50 minutes before a party executive meeting which was expected to expel her from the group convened.

She resigned after 2,000 leaked WhatsApp chats showed her close relationship with businessman and alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech were published by author Mark Camilleri.

“The decision taken today shows and puts the standards expected in public life one step up, and this is a message which must be understood: with the today’s decision, the standards of behaviour expected in public life have gone up a bar,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is a message I will keep sending consistently: that while as a government we will keep pushing the electoral programme which we were elected on, we must do it in a climate of integrity and seriousness as that’s what our people are expecting from everyone in public life,” Abela added.

He said that his message about the leaked chats had been consistent: “the fact that the messages were published in a cruel and misogynistic manner and in a strategic manner in her life since they’d been in the hands of who published them for months does not change and I remain consistent about it,” he said.

However, he said that he distinguishes between how the messages were published and their content, adding that the contents of the messages could not be ignored.

Responding to a question pointing out that most of what was in the leaked chats had already been known, yet Cutajar was still allowed to contest the general election last year, Abela said that what was known from the chats before did not focus on a cardinal remark which had promoted disappointment from many people.

Abela did not elaborate on which remark this may be, but the most politically controversial remark passed was when Cutajar expressed her irritation at not being selected in then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s Cabinet and said that she would “pig out” like her colleagues and take on a consultancy job.

Answering another question, Abela said that he was “excluding” that Cutajar would ever be allowed to be a candidate with the Labour Party again from now.

“This decision was not taken today, but was taken right after the chats were published,” he said.

He said that his opinion on the matter is “reflected in the decision which Rosianne Cutajar took today.  My position with her was clear from the start.”

Asked by The Malta Independent whether it should have taken this long for a decision to be taken, Abela said that he had to follow the party’s statute – which he did – and that he had called a parliamentary group where everybody could speak freely and where Cutajar herself was allowed to defend herself.

He said that today’s meeting with the parliamentary group and party executive was the next step, but there wasn’t the need for any decision to be taken given that Cutajar resigned before the meeting voluntarily.

On what message this sends, Abela said that it means that everyone has to understand that those who do not follow the standards for MPs will have to face certain consequences such as in today’s instances where an MP ceased to represent the party she was elected for.