A Cospicua PN councillor who intends to sue his own party spent years encouraging people to vote Labour, the Nationalist Party said on Sunday.

James Cauchi, who represents the PN as local councillor, this week filed a judicial protest against the party, saying he was sidelined after being approached by an internal faction that wanted to topple party leader Bernard Grech.

Cauchi claimed that he had rebuffed the faction’s advances and pledged loyalty to Grech, but was nevertheless ignored by the party when it came to nominating its candidates for the upcoming June 8 local council elections.

On Sunday, the PN hit back at Cauchi’s claims in a public statement.

Cauchi, the party said, had spent years encouraging people in Cospicua to vote for the rival Labour Party and had also attended political events organised by Cospicua’s former mayor, now junior minister Alison Zerafa Civelli – all while serving as a PN councillor.

“He continued to do this despite being repeatedly warned,” the party said. “Despite all that, we hoped his attitude would change, and we therefore asked him if he intended to run again on the PN ticket. The email he received was sent to all current PN councillors.

“James Cauchi didn’t reply to the email for months, all while posting on social media to encourage voters to cast votes for candidates for both parties,” it said.

The party said that when Cauchi eventually told the party that he wanted to run as a PN candidate, the party’s administrative council decided it no longer wanted him on its ticket.

Cauchi’s judicial protest against the party proved that decision to be the correct one, the party said.

“We opted to stay silent and not say anything about this. But given that Cauchi has gone public, we must set out the facts,” the PN said.