MPs should be more careful in the words to avoid misunderstandings and not give the impression that they were misleading the house, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said in a ruling this evening.

He was giving a ruling requested by Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo who had objected to a Leader of the Opposition accusation that he was misleading the House over the General Workers’ Union Community Work Scheme.

Dr Busuttil accused Mr Bartolo of creating “obscene precarious jobs”.

Mr Bartolo asked the Speaker for a ruling saying Dr Busuttil was accusing him of deliberately misleading the House, a very serious accusation.

Dr Busuttil insisted that Mr Bartolo did not want to answer his question not because he used of the words “misleading the House” but because he did not have an answer to the “obscene scheme he created”.

Amid should from the government benches, Dr Farrugia suspended the sitting to give a ruling.

Earlier Minister Joe Mizzi also asked for a ruling saying that Dr Busuttil did not have any right to make statements when asking supplementary questions.

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