Update: 11.49am 

Former prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici is in a stable condition at Mater Dei Hospital, according to family members.

Mifsud Bonnici, 89, who served as prime minister between 1984 and 1987, was taken ill on Sunday. 

His condition is considered critical, according to health sources, but family members say he is now stable and was able to communicate with relatives on Monday. They asked that well-wishers stay away from the hospital.

Known to friends and foes simply as Karmenu or KMB, Mifsud Bonnici had a chequered public career.

In 1980, he was appointed deputy leader of the Labour Party and in 1982 Dom Mintoff made him the surprise choice to succeed him.

Mifsud Bonnici actually clashed with Mintoff in his dispute with the Church in the 1960s. That is before he went on to become the point of Mintoff’s spear in a new Church-State dispute in the 1980s before finally taking over from Mintoff himself in 1984.

He served as Labour leader until 1992 before another electoral defeat. He then went on to set up the Campaign for National Independence, a movement against Malta's membership of the EU.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Abela and Health Minister Chris Fearne wished Mifsud Bonnici well through a social media post. 

On Friday, former president and prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami, Mifsud Bonnici's political rival, was also admitted to hospital after he collapsed. He has since been released.