The Nationalist Party is to hold another protest outside parliament next Monday over the Clint Camilleri-Clayton Bartolo scandal, Bernard Grech said on Tuesday as he lashed out at the prime minister for not demanding Camilleri's resignation.

The PN held a protest over the issue last week and Bartolo was forced to resign from the Cabinet and the Labour parliamentary group on Tuesday, although the prime minister said that was over a different matter.

Camilleri and Bartolo have been under pressure since a Standards Commissioner report found they abused their position by granting consultancy jobs to the former's partner.

When people take to the streets in protest they become unbeatable, Grech said in parliament as it discussed the budget estimates of the Ministry of Justice.

He said that while Bartolo buckled under pressure and resigned, Clint Camilleri had yet to acknowledge that his position, too, had become untenable.

"The prime minister is weak. He knows he has huge internal problems and he is trying to hide them.  We are here to remind him that when you put the lid on the pot, the water boils quicker," he said.

"This prime minister is betraying the people because he keeps defending fraud."

Earlier on Tuesday, Abela announced that Bartolo was stepping down as tourism minister and as Labour MP. The prime minister said he had taken decisions after he learnt of new claims involving Bartolo's wife.  

Grech observed that since the scandal was revealed three weeks ago, the government attempted to make a joke of the people's protests and Bartolo was only willing to apologise, thinking it was enough.

"He has no shame, and the prime minister defended him, saying that the apology was enough," Grech said.  

"Today the people won against those who thought the people's money is theirs."

Grech went on to list some of the most recent allegations of "fraud" within the government, including the scam which saw benefits handed to people who falsely claimed severe disability, the racket in the granting of driving licences,  Rosianne Cutajar's ITS consultancy contract and the hospitals deal.

Justice, Grech said, wasn't simply the courts or the judiciary, but a need for the people to live in a country that treated everyone fairly.

"On the contrary, the people feel the government has stolen their money and pigged out on it," he said.