Finance Minister Tonio Fenech this afternoon said that the Labour Party planned on imposing a wage freeze on all salaries and not just the minimum one.

The proof, he said, was in a statement made by PL backbencher Owen Bonnici.

Speaking on the radio, Dr Bonnici said that "the minimum wage - and other wages too, because we're building a new middle class - should increase when the economy heals.

“It’s clear that the PL wants to leave the middle class in the freezer. Maltese workers should be very concerned about Joseph Muscat and his wage-freezing policy,” the finance minister said.

He argued that the minimum wage had increased by an annual €1,000 over the past four years. Those increases have all come from adjustments to the Cost-of-Living-Adjustment mechanism.

The PL has insisted that the PN is twisting its words and that COLA increases will not be affected. PL Leader Joseph Muscat has said he intends on libelling the PN for its claims that he will “freeze the minimum wage”.

Dr Muscat’s libel action was criticised this afternoon by parliamentary secretary Beppe Fenech Adami, who said it was tantamount to “gagging the PN and the media from reporting his own words”.

Somewhat ironically, journalists taking notes were only allowed to ask one question each at the PN press conference.