The parable of the Prodigal Son is perhaps one of the most told and well-known stories of the Bible. It speaks of a younger son taken by the extravagance and indulgence that money brings, but who ultimately squanders his fortune and ends up working as a hired hand on a pig farm to get by. Yet when all is said and done, the son returns to his family, remorseful for his actions and is welcomed back by his father.

In a proverbial sense, the Labour Party is much like the father in this story – at least insofar as the latter part. The party leader Robert Abela has spent the last few weeks courting some of its past representatives, trying to coax them into a return to the political fold. Party supporters have taken the cue and tried to court others who they think should return.

Abela opened the door for Rosianne Cutajar to return to the party, and the Labour Party executive is currently considering whether to allow her to be reinstated into the party’s parliamentary group. It has been reported that the parliamentary group is as yet divided on the matter.

The Prime Minister then tried to bring back Justyne Caruana, but after much speculation, the trail has gone cold, suggesting that Abela might have been rebuffed. Caruana, apparently, has moved on.

Meanwhile, supporters have clamoured to try and tempt former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat into contesting the elections as an MEP candidate – something Abela said he would certainly be open to allowing should Muscat wish to do so.

Former Minister Chris Cardona also did not exclude a return to politics earlier this week; but Abela was more cautious about him, saying he would not comment on speculation.

Abela is treating Cardona’s possible return differently from Muscat’s possible comeback. Cardona had first suspended himself in 2019 at a time when Muscat had announced his resignation; but he was not given a ministerial role by Abela and eventually left Parliament. It does not appear that Abela is too keen to have him back.

But perhaps the welcome of the proverbial father is where parallels to the parable stop: None of these individuals have found themselves having to work in a pig farm – quite the contrary, if Cutajar herself is to be believed, the “pigging out” is done when in Parliament, and not when out of it.

It’s not just that. In the parable, the prodigal son is welcomed back after showing he is remorseful and after seeking forgiveness from his father. But is there any remorse in Labour’s prodigal sons and daughters today?

Cutajar may try to make it sound like she has a new-found sense of serenity by dropping her libel case against author Mark Camilleri, but she has shown very little in the way of actual remorse for what she was booted out of the Labour parliamentary group in the first place.

Cutajar was told to exit the stage by Abela after Camilleri leaked WhatsApp chats between her and then-businessman Yorgen Fenech, which showed a very close relationship between the two, raising several questions about her integrity as a politician – particularly as she stood up for him at the Council of Europe.

She was found to have breached the Council of Europe’s ethics, and was also more recently found by the National Audit Office to have held employment as a consultant to the Institute of Tourism Studies which was “fraudulent and irregular” and “in breach of all policies and procedures”.

That was at the end November 2023 – less than four months ago. Has there been any remorse on Cutajar’s part? Far from it: she has instead used her social media profiles to criticise any Nationalist Party MP who is employed by the government – be it as a teacher, public health professional, or otherwise – and questioned whether they are going to work or not.

Her return is more prompted by Abela’s belief that she has paid the political price for her indiscretions, rather than any show of remorse on her own part.

Much the same can be said about former Prime Minister Muscat: his potential return is certainly not prompted by any sense of remorse over the myriad scandals that he was connected to, but rather because a section of the Labour Party grassroots has tried to tempt him to coming back into the fold. And perhaps also because Labour seems to have lost support since the general election, with surveys also showing that people who voted Labour are inclined not to cast their preference in June.

Muscat has spent the last few months mounting a campaign to try and discredit the magistrate leading an inquiry into the Vitals Global Healthcare hospitals concession, which was found in a separate legal case to have been fraudulent and was therefore rescinded.

It’s a campaign which Abela recently addressed: rather than stick to his “let the institutions work” mantra, he questioned why the inquiry was taking so long (it has been ongoing for four years) and whether its conclusion was being purposely timed to damage the Labour Party in the upcoming European elections.

"Joseph Muscat was never out of the Labour Party. I believe he has more to give to Labour. God forbid I base my decisions on this inquiry," Abela said.

Scenarios such as this are not unprecedented in the last decade. Most prominent was how the scandal-ridden Konrad Mizzi was handled. He was named in the Panama Papers scandal and “punished” by being “demoted” to a Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister while also resigning as Labour Party deputy leader.

Yet he was allowed to contest the general election a year later, where he was comfortably elected and was subsequently reappointed to Cabinet in the new legislature which started in 2017, only to have to resign again in 2019.

Prior to this unfolding, Manuel Mallia was another similar case: he was removed from office by Muscat in December 2014 after allegations that his ministry covered up a shooting perpetrated by his driver, but was re-appointed to Cabinet in 2016.

Michael Falzon also resigned from his Cabinet post in 2016 after the National Audit Office found collusion between officials in the Lands Department and Mark Gaffarena in the Café Premier scandal. He returned to Cabinet a year later after being re-elected in the 2017 general election.

What is perhaps different is that in two of those three cases, a general election was used to give legitimacy to their return to Cabinet. In Mallia’s case, two years had passed since he had been booted from Cabinet.

Cutajar’s most recent indictment however was a mere four months ago, and Muscat’s name is far from clear with investigations still ongoing. Caruana resigned in 2021, so three years have now passed, while Cardona resigned in 2020 – but Abela appears less pre-disposed to accepting his return.

Perhaps the only exception in this myriad of potential returning faces has been Claudette Abela Baldacchino. She was recently approved as an MEP candidate for the party, having already served as an MEP between 2013 and 2014.

She had been one of those charged in relation to a 2008 expenses fraud scandal when she was a local councillor, but was cleared – together with all of the others who were charged – in 2021, meaning that she returns to the political scene with a clean name.

She is however the least prominent out of those who could make a return to the party’s ranks.

In a scenario where the Labour Party is grappling with mass abstentions from its supporters – the most recent survey last Sunday suggests that a third of those who voted for the party in 2022 won’t vote in June – could the return of Labour’s prodigal sons and daughters signal the return of some of its own voters?

Only time will tell.