Former Labour MP Marlene Farrugia yesterday claimed there were some members of the Labour parliamentary group who were afraid to speak out.

Interviewed the day after she resigned from the Labour Party to become an independent MP, citing government lack of transparency, she urged these MPs to “stand up and be counted”.

The country needed them, she said, as she blasted the government for abandoning its pre-electoral promise to be transparent.

Her resignation came after she voted with the Opposition on proposed amendments to the Environment Protection Bill, which would have given NGOs a stronger role in the choice of members of the new environment authority.

In rejecting the amendments, the government had missed an opportunity to make a quality leap in transparency, she said.

“When I saw this I realised the government does not want to be transparent and I made my choice.”

She complained the Labour parliamentary group often heard about government decisions from the media and was not being allowed to share in governance. “Why are we closing ourselves up?”

Dr Farrugia believes there has been a leap in the way the PN does politics but ruled out crossing the floor.

Labour in government did not reflect the expectations of those who voted for it for the first time.

“They can shut my mouth if I am on my own but together they cannot silence us,” she said.

Dr Farrugia in the past was an election candidate of the Nationalist Party but has no plans to rejoin the PN or stand for re-election.

See her comments above.