MP and Sports Council chairman Luciano Busuttil may have got more than he bargained for when a Facebook post telling motorists to “stop whining” about traffic sparked a backlash of comments.

Dr Busuttil took to his Facebook account in the early hours of yesterday morning claiming motorists and the Nationalist Party media were unfairly attacking the government for temporarily closing the Coast Road.

The works caused several kilometres of gridlock in the north of the island and irked commuters in the busiest and hottest time of the year.

“Where were you in 2005? Do you remember waiting for more than 50 weeks for the roads in Luqa and Qormi to be completed? Have you any idea of all the traffic jams that we had to endure?... So please stop whining!” he wrote.

His comment, however, was met with a tide of replies, many from motorists claiming to have been late for work, and other saying tourists had even missed flights due to the delays.

One reply, from Facebook user Pol Micallef, urged Dr Busuttil not to turn the traffic situation into a political partisan matter.

However, Dr Busuttil’s reaction was not exactly diplomatic when he told Mr Micallef “Poor Pol Micallef. Your own friends and maybe even yourself think you are a person of limited intelligence.”

He later clarified that his comment was meant to pay Mr Micallef back “in his own coin” after Mr Micallef said the backbencher’s argument that traffic had been worse under the PN was irrelevant.