Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has stuck by controversial candidate Salvu Mallia, saying he has no regrets bringing him onboard as a general election candidate.

Mr Mallia’s outbursts made headlines in recent weeks after he likened Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to Hitler, among other things, yet the Nationalist party backed him up saying he was conveying outrage against the corrupt Labour government.

“Salvu is doing a good job especially since he is making politics interesting again. I think one of the problems politics is facing today is that people seem disgruntled by politicians,” Dr Busuttil told journalists following a visit to Fexserv Financial Services Ltd this morning.

Dr Busuttil insisted that Mr Mallia’s message expressed his own views that the party faced a tough challenge of getting rid of “the most corrupt government” this country had ever seen.

In an interview in The Sunday Times of Malta earlier this month, Mr Mallia said that he joined the PN on two conditions: that he would be solely guided by his conscience and that he would put the Maltese flag before anything else.

While his stance in favour of euthanasia and on abortion were in direct conflict with the PN's conservative beliefs, the PN had insisted Mr Mallia’s frustration with the present government was “understandable” insisting he was on the PN ticket to join the "coalition against corruption".