Labour leader Joseph Muscat said today that while he would respect the people's 'No' vote in a referendum, that would not not stop him campaigning for a 'Yes' vote at some future date in another referendum.

Speaking at a meeting with the committee of the Yes Campaign for Divorce, Dr Muscat said this was exactly the same position that had been taken by former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami ahead of the referendum on EU membership.

The Yes Campaign committee was headed by its chairman, Deborah Schembri, who pointed out that in Ireland two referenda had been held, with the 'No' winning the first and the 'yes' winning the second.

Dr Muscat in welcoming the committee reiterated his support for the introduction of divorce.

He also reiterated his call for the government to explain how the decision on divorce would be taken and what roadmap should be followed.

Although it had been indicated that a debate in Parliament would be held in January, followed by a referendum, nothing had been said officially, he said, and his questions on the subject in Parliament during the Budget debate had remained unanswered.

Dr Muscat stressed that it should not be taken for granted that the people would vote 'yes' in a referendum and hard work was needed to convince the electorate.

Questioned on whether a law on cohabitation should come before a law on divorce, Dr Muscat said that it was hypocritical to favour cohabitation and not divorce, and one should not go about creating second-class marriage through regulated cohabitation.

Dr Schembri said it made more sense to have divorce legislation since most people who opted for cohabitation did so because they could not remarry, which was what divorce offered.

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who forms part of the Yes Campaign and has moved a Divorce Bill in parliament, referred to comments yesterday by Eddie Fenech Adami. He said his Bill was not motivated by the fact that only Malta and the Philippines did not have divorce legislation , but because the current legislative set-up was encouraging cohabitation and this led to chaos in society.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said he expected more compassion and less self-righteousness from Dr Fenech Adami.