The Labour Party turned down proposals in Parliament by the Nationalist Party, only to include them in its local elections manifesto, PN deputy leader David Agius said on Tuesday. 

It also removed several initiatives that were instated by the Nationalist administration, only to propose them in this year’s manifesto, Mr Agius told a news conference.

Both parties have launched their manifestos for the upcoming local and MEP elections. 

PN MP Robert Cutajar noted several initiatives proposed by the Labour party had been proposed by the PN, and had been turned down.

Giving an example, he said the Labour Party had rejected a Parliamentary proposal to include community policing in a Bill on local councils, only to come up with it now, Mr Cutajar said.

In Parliament, the government had also rejected a suggestion by the Nationalist Party to introduce more day and night centres, another initiative it was now proposing, Mr Cutajar added.

Mr Cutajar insisted this showed the Labour Party was cut off from what was going on in councils. The PL’s electoral manifesto was an “insult to people’s intelligence”, he said.

Does [the Labour party] know what it is doing- PN MP Robert Cutajar

A Labour Party proposal to introduce more bus routes in hamlets had already existed under a Nationalist administration but was removed, he added. The measure was now being proposed in the PL electoral manifests.

It was also proposing that residential roads that had never been tarmacked would no longer be the responsibility of councils. However, these had always been the responsibility of Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta, Mr Cutajar said.

"Does [the Labour party] know what it is doing," he asked.

The Labour Party's electoral manifesto was either drawn up in haste or by people cut off from reality, the PN MP said.