Speaker denies Opposition request to take action over Bedingfield blog post

Anglu Farrugia says he cannot take action against OPM aide Glenn Bedingfield over blog post claiming Opposition refused to pair one of its MPs with deputy PM Louis Grech

The Speaker turned down the Opposition’s request to take action against the Prime Minister’s aide Glenn Bedingfield for claiming that they had refused to pair one of its MPs with deputy PM Louis Grech at a vote last week.

Bedingfield had claimed in his blog that the Opposition had refused to pair one of its MPs with Grech on last week’s vote on a motion to investigate OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

“The Opposition wants to table motions and dictate the agenda, and is now refusing to cooperate with government to pair one of its MPs with Louis Grech, who is recovering from a serious operation,” Bedingfield wrote. “So much for all the false solidarity.”          

Ahead of the debate, Opposition whip David Agius requested the Speaker to take action against Bedingfield, insisting that his blog post was false. Indeed, Grech was eventually paired with an Opposition MP.

However, Anglu Farrugia ruled that parliament's standing orders forbade him to take any action against Bedingfield, given that he had written his blog post before the debate had taken place, and didn’t refer to any parliamentary speeches, or PQs and documents tabled in the House.

Last week in Parliament, David Agius also complained over a similar report uploaded by Labour media One News. Whilst Agius insisted that it was not true that the Opposition had refused to pair Grech, government whip Godfrey Farrugia pointed out that he had sent a SMS to Agius about the possibility – a text message which allegedly remained unanswered.