The government as expected this evening won a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, with all 35 government MPs voting in favour and all opposition MPs voting against.

The vote was requested by the prime minister after the Minister of Home Affairs, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, was forced to resign last week after an Opposition no confidence motion backed by Nationalist MP Franco Debono.

The debate was opened and closed by the prime minister. Other government speakers were ministers Tonio Borg and Mario de Marco and MPs Francis Zammit Dimech and Dr Debono.

Dr Debono defended his actions on Wednesday and said that once responsibility had been borne for mistakes made in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Justice, he was prepared to help the prime minister bring about constitutional and institutional reforms.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici  did not take part in the debate. He arrived close to the end of the debate and set at the edge of the back bench, close to the Strangers' Gallery. He was joined by his former parliamentary assistant Beppe Fenech Adami.

In a brief statement after the vote Dr Gonzi said that the governemnt had been given the vote of confidence he had requested, a vote which was clear and unconditional. "This is a closed chapter, it is time to move forward," Dr Gonzi said.

Dr Gonzi made his statement in the palace courtyard in the presence of all the members of the parliamentary group except Dr Debono and Minister Giovanna Debono (who had asked to leave early). Dr Gonzi did not reply to questions about Dr Debono.

Dr Muscat said that nothing had been solved by today's vote and it would not be long before another crisis cropped up. Dr Muscat said that Dr Debono had put conditions to his vote and if the prime minister thought that today's vote was unconditional, he was deceiving himself.

A small crowd greeted the prime minister outside the palace, singing PN songs.

In a tweet after Joseph Muscat left the palace, his campaign team said: "Booing small crowd shouting and unrepeatable stuff greets Labour MPs outside Parliament. Who are the hamalli now?

(Today's speeches are being reported separately.)

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.