Labour's parliamentary group has met to discuss the possible return of Rosianne Cutajar, party sources have confirmed.
The now independent MP resigned from the group in April last year after thousands of damning WhatsApp chats were leaked by blogger Mark Camilleri.
But last month Prime Minister Robert Abela revealed she had requested to be "reintegrated" within the Labour parliamentary group and her request would be considered.
Party sources confirmed to Times of Malta that her possible return was discussed at a meeting at headquarters in Ħamrun on Thursday with one saying the group was "positive to her return".
Speaking afterwards, the prime minister would not confirm if it was discussed but said a decision would be made "in the near future".
He added that it is up to the executive and not the parliamentary group alone to decide on the Qormi MP's return to the PL fold.
Cutajar resigned from Labour's parliamentary group in the aftermath of the publication of more than 2,000 WhatsApp messages from 2019 between Cutajar and alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder conspirator Yorgen Fenech.
The chats showed the intimate relationsip between Cutajar and Fenech at a time when she was defending him at the Council of Europe.
In one conversation, Cutajar told Fenech she would seek a consultancy with the Institute for Tourism Studies to "pocket another wage", adding, that "everybody pigs out".
An investigation by the national auditor later concluded that her consultancy with ITS was "fraudulent", "irregular" and "in breach of all policies and procedures".
Cutajar's resignation had taken place minutes before the scheduled start of a Labour party executive meeting which was set to discuss her future.
In an email to Abela, Cutajar had said she had taken the decision with " a heavy heart" because the Labour party had been a "family" to her.
Over the last month, Abela has made overtures to several Labour party stalwarts who resigned under a cloud.
Days after telling Times of Malta that Cutajar had paid a high enough political price, he reached out to Justyne Caruana, who bowed out of the political scene in 2022 after scandals led her to resign twice in two years as minister.
And former prime minister Joseph Muscat has flirted with the possibility of returning to the political scene, saying he has not ruled out standing on the Labour Party ticket for the European Parliament elections in June.
Muscat resigned in January 2020 in the wake of the fallout from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation and the national protests that followed.