Government has betrayed the people over Steward deal - Delia

Government MPs are complicit in the theft the people are suffering from due to the Steward hospitals contract, Adrian Delia said.

The Nationalist Party said that, by defeating an Opposition motion to cancel the US company's contract, the government had betrayed the peope.

His comments come after Parliament this evening voted for an amendment to the Opposition original motion, effectively defeating the original goal of the motion to terminate the hospitals deal.

READ ALSO | Opposition motion to cancel hospitals deal defeated

Delia, who was addressing a press conference some time after the parliamentary vote, lamented that Prime Minister Robert Abela had tried to shift the blame for the escape clause  - which would make the government liable to pay €100 million to Steward if the contract is cancelled - onto the Opposition, when it was he (Abela) who had signed the contract while a lawyer for former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

"We hoped government MPs would do what is right and in the best national interest," the PN leader said.

"We have witnessed a betrayal of the people. Instead of condeming Konrad Mizzi, the government has endorsed him. All MPs are now complicit in the theft from the people," he added.

Delia added that he would continue fighting the Steward deal in court.