Updated 2.05pm, adds PL's reaction

The PN’s administrative council has ruled out opening internal proceedings against former PN leader Simon Busuttil over the Egrant affair.

In a symbolic move announced on Thursday during a council meeting, PN leader Bernard Grech proposed that any action against Busuttil be formally ruled out, a proposal the council agreed with. 

The matter had never been formally closed within the PN structures after Busuttil's successor Adrian Delia tried to eject him from the party for echoing allegations linking former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s wife Michelle to the Panama company Egrant. 

Delia called for Busuttil's head on the day the Attorney General published conclusions from the 1,400-page report, which found that the documents on which the allegation was based had falsified signatures. 

“It’s time to move forward,” Dr Delia said at the time. “This is not personal. The PN's credibility in the fight against corruption must remain intact."

That same day, the administrative council issued a statement supporting Delia’s calls for Busuttil to step down. 

Busuttil had refused the demands for his resignation, with Delia eventually backing down.

Delia was ousted from the PN’s leadership last year soon after successive polls showed he had low public support and his continued links with 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech were exposed. 

Grech has so far declined to take any action against Delia. 

PL reacts

In a two-line reaction, the Labour Party said that if there was ever any doubt about who is leading the PN, this was removed at Thursday's council meeting. Grech, it said, is hostage to those who placed him in his role.