Lawyer Chris Said says he is “not interested” in replacing Adrian Delia as opposition leader after the Nationalist party leader failed a confidence vote on Tuesday night. 

Said, who put forward the no confidence motion backed by a majority 19 MPs, had been mooted as a possible successor should President George Vella revoke Delia’s position as leader of the opposition.

However, asked by Times of Malta if he would consider replacing Delia, he replied: “definitely not, I'm not interested”. 

He said MPs are discussing the situation and have “various options” and would disclose their choice of replacement “at the right time”. 

Chris Said rules himself out of replacing Adrian Delia as leader of the opposition. Video: Ivan Martin

Said told Times of Malta that a statement would be issued on Wednesday evening with “all the details of what we’re going to be proposing”.

However, another possible successor, Claudio Grech did not rule the prospect out, when asked by Times of Malta if he would be interested. 

He said it was "speculation" and that he was "interested in the good of the party and the country". 

Ivan Martin asks Claudio Grech if he plans to replace Adrian Delia as opposition leader. Video: Matthew Mirabelli

MPs have been meeting to decide the next steps after Delia announced he would stay on as leader of the party and opposition. 

Said had previously contested the leadership of the Nationalist Party but was defeated in 2017 after Delia won 7,734 of the votes from party members, compared to Said’s 6,932. 

At the time, Said was seen as the favoured insider though Delia had by then secured popularity among PN grassroots members.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.