Updated | Labour Party MPs say Delia too silent over Jason Azzopardi

Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi lied when he claimed that he received approval from the permanent secretary for a land deal in Spinola, St Julians, when he was a minister, the Labour party said.

Labour MPs Robert Abela and Clayton Bartolo said despite Azzopardi having "lied" twice in a week over what they described as a “scandalous deal”, Opposition leader Adrian Delia remained silent.

 They were reacting to testimony heard yesterday in Parliament’s public accounts committee.

Paul Zahra, who was permanent secretary at the time of the Spinola deal, told the PAC yesterday that he did not advise the government to go down the road that saw it receive a mere €35, instead of €2.5 million for the land. Azzopardi had previously claimed he acted on the permanent secretary's advice.

Jason Azzopardi fired back at the Labour Party’s claims and said that they were turning the auditor general’s report on its head to “damage my reputation”.

When asked repeatedly if he was politically pressured in any way, Zahra said no, said Azzopardi. “If the party was interested in the truth”, they would have taken Zahra's testimony into account, he said, insisting that the politicians did not have the correct information.