The Labour Party has not contested the two rulings given by Speaker Michael Frendo last week which prevented a discussion from taking place on the party’s divorce referendum motion.

The second ruling was criticised as “partisan” and “factually incorrect” and the Labour Party vowed to contest it.

But Dr Frendo had denied these claims and, after verifying the transcript of audio recordings, he insisted his ruling was “absolutely factually correct” and had “objectively applied the rules as they stand”.

When contacted, the Labour Party said the decision not to contest the ruling was taken after the Prime Minister offered to start discussing its referendum motion on Wednesday, a request which the Opposition accepted.

“This meant that the issue was superseded since the Prime Minister accepted to debate the motion before the end of this week, as per our original demand.”

The issue arose during a House Business Committee meeting last Wednesday when Labour representatives said they wanted to hold a discussion on the party’s divorce referendum motion by the end of this week. However, the government refused to give such a guarantee, even though Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said he too wanted a specific date this week to be set.

Labour Whip Joe Mizzi then went to Parliament to ask for a ruling on whether the debate could be held the following day. The Speaker denied the request on grounds that Parliament did not usually meet on Thursdays.

Mr Mizzi asked for a vote to be taken immediately but Dr Frendo turned down this request too, ruling it had been made after he called time up and business was interrupted.

When contacted some days ago to see whether Labour stood by its claim of factual incorrectness, a spokesman for the party had said: “Mr Mizzi gave notice that he would be asking for another ruling. Yet, the Speaker said that time had run out exactly before allowing the Labour Whip to move his second motion.”

The spokesman added the opposition reserved the right to contest the rulings.

“The major issue (on Wednesday) was the one clear fact that Lawrence Gonzi did everything possible to delay discussing the motion Labour presented on Monday, which has the backing of the absolute majority in Parliament.”