Newly-appointed Minister for Competitiveness Manuel Mallia is confident he can work with the Opposition, despite the fact it had insisted on his sacking as Home Affairs minister in 2014. 

Asked if he believed the Opposition would be willing to work with him given this context, Dr Mallia replied “Why not?”.

Dr Mallia skirted questions about whether he felt hard done by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's decision to retain Konrad Mizzi in Cabinet.

He said he respected the Prime Minister’s decision to sack him in 2014 when he was home affairs minister and continued to work within the Labour movement.

Dr Mallia had defied Joseph Muscat’s call for his resignation, forcing the Prime Minister to sack him.

Dr Mallia being sworn in as Minister today. Photo: DOI/Reuben Piscopo

The controversy centred on allegations of a cover-up following a shooting incident involving Dr Mallia's driver. At the time, Times of Malta had reported that just five of 26 Labour MPs contacted wanted Dr Mallia to stay on. 

Asked how he could respect Dr Muscat’s decisions in light of this, Dr Mallia said the circumstances were different and he did not wish to revisit the past.

Dr Mallia did not rule out a return of his former chief of staff Silvio Scerri to his secretariat.