Clayton Bartolo announces he will contest election, says he is a 'Labourite'

Ex-Labour MP Clayton Bartolo said he will run in the next general election, adding that he “will always be a Labourite”.

Asked if he will be running on the PL ticket, Labour Party CEO Leonid McKay said the party has not formally discussed his prospective candidacy.

Bartolo, now an independent MP, was kicked out of the PL parliamentary group and removed as tourism minister following revelations of a report into suspicious payments that Bartolo’s wife received.

During a speech at a fully booked “Buffet Breakfast with Tombla (Bingo)”, the former tourism minister told his most ardent supporters about his intentions for the next election.

“If someone asks you whether I am running in the next election, the answer is yes. And if they ask you if I am running as an independent, I will tell you one thing: I was a Labourite, I am a Labourite and I will always be a Labourite,” Bartolo said to applause.

Asked if his statement meant he would be running on the PL ticket, Bartolo said:

"My statement means that I will always back the Labour Party in Parliament no matter what my formal position is. Things will be made clearer when the investigation is concluded,” he said.

Bartolo was the tourism minister until November 2024, when he was asked to resign his ministerial role and his position as PL MP by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Times of Malta had exclusively reported that the police received a report into suspected kickbacks that Bartolo’s wife received over a six-month period in 2023.

Those payments, which totalled around €50,000, were made from a company linked to a Malta Tourism Authority contractor. Investigators at the FIAU, Malta’s anti-money laundering body, suspect the payments were a kickback for the contractor getting MTA work.

That scandal came on the back of a damning Standards Commissioner report, which concluded that he abused his ministerial power by giving his girlfriend-turned-wife a top-paid consultancy job she did not do.

Asked about Bartolo's declaration PL CEO Leonid McKay said the party is in constant talks with prospective candidates.  

“I can tell you already that there are some very interesting names,” he said. He said the party committee on prospective candidates will begin meeting soon. 

The Candidate Commission of the PL is charged with interviewing and vetting all of the PL’s electoral candidates. They then recommend whether a candidate is accepted or not to contest on the party’s ballot.  

“Till now, no candidate has been formally approved,” he said.  

That includes Bartolo, McKay said .

McKay added that Bartolo's prospective candidacy has been put to no scrutiny at the moment.  

McKay added that the PL gives the process of approving its candidates a lot of importance. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela has the power to hold an election at any point during his legislature. However, he must do so by the first half of 2027.