Chris Said is insisting he has nothing to add to previous statements on an e-mail he received from a contractor alleging “works for votes” in Gozo. The Nationalist Party’s general secretary said yesterday he had nothing to hide about the alleged scandal.

“There are a lot of things that catch my eye,” he said, stopping short of completing his sentence when asked by this newspaper why the words “works for votes” did not catch his eye as something dodgy.

Last week, Dr Said told this newspaper the words did not imply abuse and yesterday he repeatedly stuck to this line of defence. He was answering questions at the end of a press conference during which he insisted that politics deman-ded honesty rather than “soldiers of steel”.

Dr Said was reacting to comments made by former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia, who, at a Labour Party activity on Monday, described himself as a soldier of steel.

Dr Said recalled that Dr Mallia had to leave Cabinet after an attempted cover-up in the wake of a shooting incident involving his driver. Had the facts not been revealed by the media, the people would have been led to believe that warning shots were fired in the air rather than at a car, he said.

“It seemed that to be a soldier of steel with [Prime Minister] Joseph Muscat, one had to be found guilty of something,” Dr Said remarked.