Nationalist MP Claudio Grech has requested a ruling from the Speaker after Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield referred to some of  his comments as "disgusting".

Mr Bedingfield lambasted the PN MP after he said, during an interview on Net Television, that being in the Marsa open centre felt like being in The Planet of the Apes.

"There are these almost xenophobic statements about foreigners coming to Malta," Mr Bedingfield said on Friday.

The PN spokesman for family welfare later apologised for his comments, saying it was an "unfortunate use of words". The comments, he insisted, meant to describe the poor living conditions of residents.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Grech said his comments were manipulated to exhibit "bad intentions".

The narrative was "the complete opposite" of any negative intentions, he said. He insisted he only meant the government was not allocating enough money to take care of migrants.

Mr Bedingfield also criticised the request for a ruling on Tuesday.

"In the analogy [Mr Grech] made, he compared people of a different skin colour to monkeys. I acknowledge he apologised but to compare people to monkeys is wrong...

“What is he asking a ruling about,” Mr Bedingfield asked, adding that members of parliament should be able to express their opinion on comments made by fellow politicians.

"If we can’t speak on the comments made by politicians, then why do we come here? To say we don’t agree with each other," he asked.

The Speaker will deliver his ruling at a later stage.