Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi is facing a vote of no confidence, following revelations that Electrogas power station director Yorgen Fenech was behind company 17 Black. 

The once-secret company was named in leaked e-mails as one of two companies that would pay $2 million to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri and Minister Konrad Mizzi's Panama companies.

Partit Demokratiku (PD) MPs Godfrey Farrugia and Marlene Farrugia submitted the motion of no confidence in Dr Mizzi to the clerk of the House on Friday morning.

PD leader Godfrey Farrugia told Times of Malta that in 2016 Dr Mizzi had claimed in parliament that his secret financial structure was set up for estate planning reasons.

What started as doubts at the start of the 2013 energy saga, he said, had now grown into an "extremely suspicious" question-raising series of events. 

This, Dr Farrugia said, had been galvanised into undisputable facts by establishing the owner of 17 Black and the relationship with the controversial issue in hand - the Electrogas project.

It was clear, he said, that Dr Mizzi's position as minister was now no longer tenable.

Another motion of no confidence filed against Dr Mizzi two years ago had been  defeated. That motion had been filed by PD member Marlene Farrugia, then an independent MP.

It had followed the defeat of a motion of no confidence in the government filed by then Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

Dr Busuttil had filed the motion following the prime minister's failure to dismiss Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, who had been named in the Panama Papers.

The papers showed that Dr Mizzi had a trust in New Zealand and a company in Panama and had also attempted to set up bank accounts in Dubai and Panama.

Both Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri’s business plans have caused outrage and have led to vociferous calls for their resignations.

Dr Mizzi has described the 17 Black revelations as a coordinated attack against him.