Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis accused the Leader of the Opposition of serious abuse and irresponsibility, saying he should be ashamed of threatening to withdraw citizenship rights.

Dr Zammit Lewis said Dr Busuttil had not read the main citizenship legislation, Clause 14 of which gave a qualified right to the minister to withdraw any citizenship acquired through deceit or misleading information.

He said that contrary to Dr Busuttil’s “shocking threats”, the previous Labour opposition had always supported successive Nationalist governments on financial services even though there were times when it had registered disagreement. On the contrary, Dr Busuttil was harming the country.

Dr Zammit Lewis said that since the Labour government had launched the global residence scheme four months ago, foreigners in Malta had made high property investment, with 29 properties reserved for sale in a single week.

This contrasted sharply with the Permanent Residents’ Scheme launched by the Nationalist government, which in 22 months before its suspension had attracted only six applicants with four being processed.

In a statement issued later, the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security described Dr Busuttil’s speech as one of the most negative in the history of Parliament, one that harmed the country.

His speech was one of the most negative in the history of Parliament and harmed the country

It said that it was contradictory of him to say he was against the programme on principle yet he would propose amendments to it.

Dr Busuttil’s threat to withdraw granted citizenships showed he lacked knowledge of the law, which stated that no prime minister could do so unless on serious specified crimes.