Talk of Richard Cachia Caruana being irreplaceable was simply further proof of the existence of a clique, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking in Marsascala, Dr Muscat referred to last Monday's vote which led to the resignation of Malta's ambassador in the EU Richard Cachia Caruana and said that the Prime Minister wanted a clear vote and he got it.

The existing Nationalist Party, Dr Muscat said, was not a Nationlist party but GonziPN.

For while in a movement members could step in for one another, in a clique one only worked and looks out for oneself.

Dr Muscat spoke about plans for a new Labour government and said the first law would be on in-vitro fertilisation. The country had been dragging its feet on this law for a long time and "every minute we delay is a minute robbed from a mother to be".

Turning to pensions, Dr Muscat said that although the government was now promising that it would not raise the pensionable age, it would.

The PL's solution to the pension problem was economic growth and an increase in the number of women in the workforce.

People aged 45 and over, he said, had a clear choice either of going for Gonzi PN, which had already raised the pensionable age once or for a new government which had an alternative plan.

Dr Muscat noted that the government last year had not objected to a European Commission proposal to raise pensionable age. And as it had done with the water and electricity rates following the last election, it would forget its promises and raise this age.

The water and electricity tariffs, he said, had impoverished the middle class and destroyed the business models of thousands of businesses.

He made a heartfelt appeal to hardcore Labourites for their help in opening up the PL and turning it into a movement for everyone.

A PL government, he said, would work with everyone not just the inner circle for the country to move forward.