Police are investigating Labour convert Jo Said after Nationalist MP David Agius made a formal complaint that he was being blackmailed.

Through his lawyers, Joseph Giglio and Stephen Tonna Lowell, Mr Agius asked the Police Commisisoner to investigate Mr Said for using "moral violence" and "blackmail" to force him to do something against his will.

It is being alleged that Mr Said tried to force Mr Agius to stand up in Parliament, declare the Nationalist Government as corrupt and cross the floor.

It is understood that police have already questioned Mr Said who has also made a statement.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Agius said he had reached the end of his tether and decided to resort to the police as he could no longer tolerate Mr Said's "harassment".

"Mr Said has been threatening me since mid-January. He claimed that he knew something which would threaten my political career and that if I didn't cross the floor he would end my political career.

I have nothing to hide. Things have now gone too far. I have called on the police to take action. I have also decided to go public."

Mr Agius said that the attempted blackmail concerns an incident that occured when he was an undergraduate five years ago.

"In 2003, when I was sitting for one of my exams at University, an invigilator queried the fact that a ruler I was using had an economic graph on it. The University Board, which is responsible for looking into such matters, decided to annul this exam and I had to do a re-sit a few weeks later.

"As a result I also graduated a year later than my colleagues. Like others in the same situation, I accepted the board's decision. Now Mr Said, who doesn't seem to realise that the award of my degree was legitimate, threatened to go public with this story during the election campaign.

The price for not going public was for me to call the PN corrupt and cross the floor."

Mr Agius first met Mr Said on January 14 when they were both participants in a discussion programme on Smash TV.

Following corruption allegations levelled during the discussion against the Government by Mr Said, the Nationalist MP met him in public at an Attard cafe on the morning of January 17 to tell him that he had checked his (Mr Said) allegations and found they were all false.

"It was during this meeting that Mr Said told me that he knew about what had happened when I was a university student and told me that if I don't stand up in Parliament, make a declaration that the Government was corrupt and cross the floor, he will tell the newspapers about me and end my political career."

The Nationalist MP said that matters then escalated as Mr Said's behaviour became more unusual.

According to the MP, Mr Said began to pester him, sending him threatening e-mails, calling him on his mobile phone and even turning up at his home and at Nationalist Party meetings.

"The straw that broke the camel's back took place on Friday morning as I was coming out of the Corinthia Hotel in Attard. As I was leaving the hotel, Mr Said stopped me very aggressively. He again told me that he will be revealing everything to the press if I wouldn't leave the 'corrupt' Nationalist Party."

Mr Said has been in the headlines in recent weeks as a result of his allegations. He has described himself publicly as a former staunch Nationalist who is now backing the Labour Party. Last week, he was also seen with the Labour leader during an electoral campaign activity.

Contacted last night for his reaction, Mr Said said that he didn't want to make any comments.

"I don't speak to non-independent media," he said.