Labour MPs have closed ranks following a driving test scandal involving their colleague, Foreign Minister Ian Borg.

Several backbenchers and ministers declined to comment when confronted with examples of text messages leaked to Times of Malta that were sent by Borg, then transport minister, his canvassers or ministry officials.

Others stuck to Prime Minister Robert Abela’s line that politicians are there “to help” and that there is nothing wrong in sending WhatsApp texts to help voters “as long as it is done legally”.

Times of Malta sought the reaction of Labour MPs outside parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday, asking them whether they would forward messages from voters asking for their daughter to be “bumped up the queue” or for driving test examiners to “go easy” on specific candidates.

Only one – junior minister Chris Bonett – said he would not pass on that sort of message, though he went on to say that “whenever [citizens] need our help, they will get it”.

Others, such as Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, appeared uncomfortable when confronted with examples of text messages sent and made it clear they operate differently.

“I don’t even have canvassers or a district office,” he said. “That’s the way I, personally, operate,” he added when pressed on.

Junior Minister Alicia Bugeja Said repeated the prime minister’s defence of Borg and said she received “various” requests for help.

Borg’s successor as transport minister, Aaron Farrugia, said he had nothing to add to what he said earlier in the week, when he argued that the scandal was in the past. He said work was under way to “improve standards” within Transport Malta’s licensing department with the help of “international entities”.

But many, including Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, avoided the question altogether. Backbencher and former minister Michael Farrugia sought to question the credibility of the leaked messages, saying he had no way of knowing whether or not they were real.

Times of Malta revealed on Sunday how Transport Malta’s former director of licensing, Clint Mansueto, fielded requests to help hundreds of specific driving licence candidates.

Requests came from various government officials, including several people within Ian Borg’s secretariat, as well as Borg himself, who was transport minister at the time.

In some cases, the request was to bump candidates up the queue for a driving test. In others, Mansueto was given the date and time when a candidate was sitting for their test with an instruction to “help” them.

Robert Abela has been steadfast in his defence of Borg and officials who texted Mansueto, saying the minister was doing his job, that he wanted ministry customer care officials to “push harder” and that such requests for help are part of Malta’s political system.

That defence prompted the Malta Employers Association to say the prime minister was extending “an invitation to anarchy”.