Can Labour clear the mess?

The demise of Rosaianne Cutajar’s political career would not have happened if Labour rebel, Mark Camilleri, did not have the guts to defy the law of the land and publish the WhatsApp chats between her and Yorgen Fenech.

The chats were part of the information that was gathered from Fenech’s mobile telephone during the investigation of his alleged procurement of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia - a crime for which he has now been formally accused.

The episode proves the point that only genuine Labourites can clean the mess that their party finds itself in, following three consecutive landslide electoral victories.

Whether this unusual trend in Malta’s political history is attributable solely to the merits of Joseph Muscat is a moot point. I would think that the PN’s failure to recognise what went wrong during Lawrence Gonzi’s two premiership terms also contributed to those landslides. But that’s another story.

If history is a guide, it is very difficult for political parties finding themselves in a mess while in power to clear that mess and start afresh without doing a spell in Opposition. This is the big problem that the current prime minister, Robert Abela, faces.

When party leaders are also the Prime Minister, they can fall between two stools - the running of the party must necessarily take secondary importance. In the past there were prime ministers who concentrated too much on the job of governing the country with the party suffering consequently. I do not know of any prime minister who did not fall into this dilemma, except perhaps, for Eddie Fenech Adami, who stuck to the practice of dedicating one day of the week to monitor what is happening in the party and take the necessary decisions. At the other extreme, there were others who left their party rudderless while serving as PMs.

Robert Abela’s task is therefore not an easy one. It cannot be carried out by simply repeating the cliché that ‘no one is bigger than the party’ and not doing anything else that matters.

I do not know how much time Robert Abela dedicates to the party and how many loyal party members are ensuring that he knows what is happening both at the Labour headquarters and among the party faithful in the street. I understand he was shocked at the low turnout of Labour Party supporters for the commemoration of Freedom Day in Birgu last week. Although they must have been planned beforehand, his announcing an increase in stipends and Children’s Allowances during his speech was interpreted by some as a kneejerk reaction to the fact that he was disappointed with the small crowd of Labour supporters for the commemoration.

In the current situation, cleaning the Labour party seems to be akin to cleaning the Augean stables - and Robert Abela is no Hercules despite being a body-building aficionado.

Of course, cleaning the mess in which Labour has found itself, will cost Abela votes - those who are stopped from pigging it out will react by withdrawing their support for Labour, even if only temporarily. Selfishness knows no end.

But on the other hand, not cleaning the mess will also cost Abela votes - over the years, genuine Labourites have tended to abstain from voting when their party misbehaves. This happened under Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. In fact, Alfred Sant’s 1996 electoral victory was partly due to the votes of many Labourites who had been abstaining from voting because of their party’s abuses under Mintoff and KMB.

Today’s electorate is perhaps more ready to switch their vote from one election to another and Abela must walk a tight rope, trying to avoid a voter haemorrhage for one reason or another.

Last Sunday, Alfred Mifsud, former deputy governor of the Central Bank and former Chairman of Labour’s radio and TV wrote a piece in The Sunday Times of Malta to tell the Prime Minister ‘what true Labourites demand.’

In his most telling part that reflects what many honest and true Labourites feel he wrote: ‘I am among Labourites who feel offended seeing people, who were nowhere to be seen when the going was tough, betraying the principles of what Labour should stand for.’ Succinctly, this is Robert Abela’s conundrum: should his government continue to offend true Labourites and lose their support or make a clean sweep, getting rid of all the bloodsuckers that are feasting - or pigging it out - under the government he leads?

The second option is a steep climb: for Labour to attempt to reach the high moral ground is no easy task. Contrary to what Abela seems to think, Rosianne Cutajar’s withdrawal from the Labour parliamentary group has not raised the bar of standards for public life. Labour has just avoided drowning in pigsty sludge.

Meanwhile in the UK ...

In Rishi Sunak's first speech as British Prime Minister outside of 10 Downing Street, he vowed to bring ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ back to government.

This promise has already come to the test. A few days ago, Scott Benton, the MP for Blackpool South, lost the Conservative Party whip after an investigation by the Times newspaper revealed he offered to lobby ministers on behalf of fake gambling industry investors.

In other words, Benton was suspended from the Conservative parliamentary group after he was filmed offering to lobby ministers for a fake company in a sting organised by the newspaper. The UK Parliament's code of conduct prohibits MPs from lobbying in return for payment.

Undercover reporters posed as investors in the betting and gaming industry who were looking for a paid adviser. They filmed Benton explaining that he could table parliamentary questions, leak confidential policy documents and attempt to influence ministers to help weaken proposed reforms to the sector. Benton did not pursue the role and no rules appear to have been broken.

In recent years, the issue of British MPs having second jobs has been a hot potato and there were calls for reform of the rules after there were high profile cases involving British MPs conducting private business outside of their parliamentary duties.