Labour MP Julia Farrugia Portelli said in Parliament she did not like how "a faction of the Nationalist Party decided to focus on [Opposition leader] Adrian Delia’s separation because they deemed it to be in the public interest".

"I thought about [the couple's] five children, Ms Farrugia Portelli said. "Did the parents have time to explain what was going on to their children," she asked.

She noted members of the House needed to reform the way of doing politics. "We fight between us, including with the Opposition leader, but there’s a way and a way," she said.

Addressing a debate on the budgetary estimates for the Office of the Prime Minister, Ms Farrugia Portelli ran through her department’s key initiatives.  She also levelled criticism at the Opposition leader, noting Nationalist party members had agents who sold citizenship, despite Dr Delia’s opposition to the scheme.

"There’s a lot of fear about the Individual Investors Programme as though it is a spectre," she said. "Our due diligence has a four-tier process, unlike Portugal and Cyprus," she noted.

Malta and Austria were the only two countries that published the names of citizenship, irrespective of becoming a citizen through the scheme or because they had been living here for years, she noted.

Discussing the ongoing cannabis reform, the parliamentary secretary said discussions with stakeholders were ongoing and insisted any new policy would not result in a free-for-all and would be accompanied by detailed harm-reduction measures.

She also said a Green Paper on increasing women’s participation in politics was due in the coming weeks, with the goal being a 50-50 balance by 2030.