Godfrey Farrugia won’t contest general election with Labour

Labour MP Godfrey Farrugia has announced that he will not be contesting the next general election on a Labour Party ticket. In a Facebook post, Farrugia said that he had decided not to contest the election because he no longer felt he belonged in “what is calling itself the Labour Party”.

"Tomorrow I turn 57. This afternoon I have decided that it would not suit me to contest the election on the ticket of what is calling itself the Labour Party. I am a Labourite and I don't feel that my place is there," wrote the Zebbug doctor.

Four days ago, Farrugia announced he would be resigning as the Labour Party’s Whip in the wake of reports that the Prime Minister’s wife owns an offshore Panama company, adding that he would stay on as a member of the Labour Party in order to try and change it from within.

Farrugia was appointed health minister upon Labour’s election 2013, but stepped down a year later and was replaced by Konrad Mizzi. He was appointed Whip of the Labour Party’s parliamentary group in 2015. In a brief reaction to the resignation, Joseph Muscat praised Farrugia for his work as Whip and announced that Anthony Agius Decelis has been appointed acting whip.

In a strongly worded open letter to Joseph Muscat, Farrugia warned that the Office of the Prime Minister had started centralising power after the Panama Papers scandal erupted last year, and that some Labour officials and supporters had done their utmost to deny him media coverage.