The Labour Party yesterday refused to react to comments made by its conservative MP Adrian Vassallo, who described liberals as “pigs” during a parliamentary debate on IVF.

“No comment,” was the only reply by the spokesman of Labour leader Joseph Muscat to a series of questions by The Times about whether such comments were acceptable.

Dr Muscat was asked whether such comments were consistent with the Labour Party’s values of being “progressive and moderate”.

He was also asked whether any action would be taken to distance the party from such statements and why the party had not made any such statement as yet.

Dr Vassallo’s comments immediately went viral on social networks, provoking a strong backlash from liberals.

Many of them uploaded photos of pigs on their Facebook profiles, while others said they were “proud” to be pigs.

Among them were Labour exponents like Cyrus Engerer, who declared: “I am a pig.”

Even independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando uploaded a photo of a pig with a caption saying he would be speaking about IVF in Parliament tonight. He ended the caption with “oink oink”.

A Facebook group promoting Maltese pork also reported a surge in membership following Dr Vassallo’s comments.

Dr Vassallo made his comments on Monday night during a parliamentary debate on IVF.

The Labour MP, who has had several disagreements with his party in the past, said that he would vote against the Bill on second reading but in favour of the Opposition’s amendments.

Dr Vassallo said he had been described as a dinosaur but if he was a dinosaur, the liberals were pigs.

“The liberals don’t believe in anything. They have no respect for others,” he said.