The Labour Party collected more than half a million euro in donations during a fundraising telethon on Friday. 

Some €516,896 were donated throughout the eight-hour fundraiser, which outgoing party leader and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife played a prominent role in. 

Labour leadership contenders Chris Fearne and Robert Abela were among those who manned phone lines and took calls from donors throughout the day. 

Dr Muscat, who was accompanied by his wife Michelle, discussed the end of his political career on the programme and vouched to stay out of his successor’s way.

“Do not expect to see me at the forefront,” he told viewers. 

“The new leader will need space to affirm himself. If the party needs me to not appear at all, I will do that. If they need me to be a marginal figure, I will do that too.”

It was the second fundraiser by a political party in one week. Last Sunday, the Nationalist Party held a fundraising activity of its own. The party collected €405,709.

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