Former minister Lino Spiteri says he was "an idiot" for not having resigned at once in 1994 when Alfred Sant decided, without consulting anybody, to commit Labour to replace VAT once it was returned to power.

Mr Spiteri, who was shadow finance minister at the time, tells The Sunday Times in a frank interview (see pages 10,11) that he learnt of Dr Sant's decision from friends over dinner.

"It was news to me. I felt like an idiot. On the morrow I confronted Dr Sant about it and told him: 'how could you have said something like that?' He told me: 'I know you disagree with it, I wanted to commit you'".

Mr Spiteri, who turns 70 today, reveals that he did not vote for the Labour Party in 2003 because he was in favour of EU membership. The respected politician had resigned in 1997 shortly after the party was returned to power.

The widely-respected former politician delves back to the past and speaks of the way he was physically threatened by an unnamed minister in the Socialist Cabinet of the 1980s and says he had recommended to Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to replace three ministers, as violent elements swept the party.

Mr Spiteri says he has turned down Joseph Muscat's request to return to the MLP, saying his days in politics are over.

"I won't be a returning trophy. It's up to the former ministers to move forward in the way they think best. I don't happen to agree with that - you don't go in front of the camera with all that embracing and emotion. That's not politics, that's theatre."