[WATCH] Muscat denies secret Panama company Egrant belongs to him or his relatives

Prime Minister Jospeh Muscat has moved to disassociate himself from rumours that he or one of his relatives is the ultimate beneficiary owner of Egrant, the third offshore Panama company that was set up by Nexia BT as revealed in the Panama Papers.

Addressing Labour delegates at the party's annual general conference, Muscat admitted that he made a mistake by taking too long to disassociate himself from the rumour and pledged not to repeat the mistake in the future. 

"People are now claiming that either myself, my wife or one of my relatives own a company or bank account outside of Malta," he said. "I assure you now that this is not true."

Nexia BT boss Brian Tonna has claimed ownership of Egrant, but the rumour linking the company with Muscat has spread in recent days after Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed to know the identity of Egrant's owner, in a blogpost accompanied with a picture of the Prime Minister's spouse Michelle Muscat and Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijani autocratic leader Ilham Aliyev.

The PN has strongly hinted that Muscat owns Egrant and recently released a statement claiming that "the only threat to the country is Dr Egrant".

He urged Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil to keep the upcoming election free of personal attacks against politicians' relatives, criticising the PN media for recently publishing pictures of his wife and children. 

"I urge Simon Busuttil to keep it decent," he said. "Let's keep the politics between ourselves and between different ideas. No matter what others do in the coming months, I pledge that Labour will remain decent."