The Nationlist Party has called on the people to unite in protest in front of Parliament on Monday evening.

In a statement, it accused the government of defending the benefit fraud racket "born at Castille" and of which only Labour benefitted in the last election.

The party had earlier called for parliament to convene urgently on Monday to debate the scandal.  

But the government did not agree with the proposal.

Times of Malta revealed last Sunday that former Labour MP Silvio Grixti, a popular family doctor, has been implicated in a years-long racket to help “hundreds” of people receive monthly disability benefits they were not entitled to.

The claimants received monthly payments averaging €450 from the social security department.

Evidence seen by Times of Malta indicates Grixti, a popular family doctor, provided false medical documents to help people, often hailing from Labour strongholds, to receive monthly social benefits for severe disabilities they did not suffer from.

The fraud saw the claimants receive monthly payments averaging €450 from the social security department.

Times of Malta has now interviewed three of the illicit benefit recipients, including a man who said a Labour Party canvasser and a former minister’s aide lured him into the benefits fraud racket in return for his vote and a kickback amounting to a year’s worth of benefits.

In its statement calling the protest, the PN said the scandal had benefitted the Labour Party to the detriment of the rest of the Maltese and Gozitans. These benefits were abusively distributed by the Labour government.

It said this was so much the case that it did not want Parliament to meet with urgency to discuss this matter of national importance and reply to the people's many question.

It called on the people to go in front of Parliament and unite in protest at 6.30pm on Monday to show their disapproval to the government's actions and attitude.

"Because the people deserve better. They deserve a better life in Malta," the PN statement said.