Labour deputy leader Michael Falzon yesterday launched a scathing attack on Jason Micallef, saying the MLP general secretary had actively campaigned against him and George Abela during the party leadership race.

Dr Falzon told The Sunday Times: "Jason and his clique, especially some journalists and others around him, spent the past four years sabotaging me and I spent four years in silence for the sake of the party. They were four years of torment."

The rift between the two was blown wide open by the outgoing deputy leader at the same time as newly-elected party leader Joseph Muscat was calling for unity and inclusiveness in his first news conference.

When asked whether he was prepared to work under the present circumstances, Dr Falzon said that he had always offered himself selflessly to the party, but he had "no intention of working with people who always used the party for their interests".

"I have always given to the party... d xeputy leaders, for instance, don't even receive a salary. I even paid my mobile phone bill. I didn't even have that..."

He would not answer directly when asked whether he was prepared to work under Dr Muscat but insisted he would remain loyal to the party and his constituency.

"As an MP I have an obligation to the 6,000 or so voters who elected me. I'm not going to delude them and I'm going to remain loyal to the party."

On the leadership election, Dr Falzon said: "It's common knowledge within the Labour Party that... he (Jason Micallef) was going out, meeting committees and delegates to inflict harm on me and (Dr) Abela.

"There's even a letter, by Wenzu Mintoff, protesting about this... at the start of the process he (Mr Micallef) was already doing this and he continued to do it till the very end. He met with the committees of Żabbar, Marsascala, Gozo, he was promoting the agenda of a particular candidate, it's obvious. At one point, he even alleged that one of the contenders was a Nationalist and that the other opposes Alfred Sant...," Dr Falzon said.

When contacted last night, Mr Micallef said he had no comment to make, except that he "will not use external media to make any comments on former or current members of the party".

The latest storm was triggered by a comment made by Mr Micallef to One Radio last Friday, in which he said that he was attacked by the Nationalist Party because he "never hugged or danced" with any of its leaders - this was interpreted by many as a reference to his friendly embrace with the PN's general secretary after Labour conceded defeat in the general election.

Dr Falzon reacted later in the day, saying: "As for comments made on the radio regarding the fact that I hugged Joe Saliba, well, I'll leave that up to the political maturity of the people..."

Mr Micallef declined to comment on Dr Falzon's reaction during Dr Muscat's maiden press conference as Labour leader yesterday but said later that his radio comment was not aimed at the outgoing deputy leader.

He then went one step further, however, and said: "During his campaign for the Labour leadership (Mr) Falzon repeatedly made a number of allegations in my regard. As I always did in the past, I placed the interest of the party first... I didn't talk and didn't rebut (what) Dr Falzon (said) until the election process was over."

He would not point out which allegations he was referring to, but insisted that his radio comment was not aimed at Dr Falzon or Dr Abela.

"It was the second time that I made that comment - the first was in an article I wrote on Kullħadd on May 18.

"I insist that I can understand the attacks of the Nationalist Party in my regard because I never danced, hugged or slept with the leaders of the PN and this makes me proud."

When asked about Mr Micallef's comment during the press conference, Dr Muscat said he was not aware of it.