The Labour Party has accepted the Prime Minister’s apology for describing Labour as a “disastrous disease” about two weeks ago.

Lawrence Gonzi made his apology in Parliament on Wednesday night in his reaction to the Opposition Leader’s speech on the Budget.

Dr Gonzi said his comments may have been misrepresented and he never meant to link Labour with disease. His apology was applauded in Parliament.

“We accept the apology and will not hold it against the Prime Minister, despite the fact that he reminded us of old style politics,” a party spokesman said yesterday when contacted.

The spokesman added that back in 2008, shadow finance minister Charles Mangion had apologised for saying that Nationalists had something wrong with their political DNA, “but Dr Gonzi’s party kept on repeating it”.

“It is a matter of style,” the spokesman concluded.

Dr Gonzi had made his disease comment when interviewed by a friendly journalist on the party’s radio station.

He said the Labour Party presented itself as the “miraculous cure” of the country but was always its “disastrous disease”.

Interestingly, when the Labour Youth Forum condemned the comments as “insensitive and shameful”, the Nationalist Party released a statement denying the comments, adding that the Prime Minister was simply arguing the Labour Party had implemented a “damaging” policy for the country, giving people bad advice when they had to make important choices.

While the forum said Dr Gonzi’s comments aimed at sowing hatred and division, contrasting with the Labour leader’s appeal for unity and inclusivity, the PN said people were still suffering consequences of Labour’s bad policies which had greatly harmed the country.