Mrs Muscat wears €1,000 shoes on stage at Labour mass meeting yesterday

Mrs Muscat, the Prime Minister’s wife, went on stage to greet her husband and hug and kiss his party deputy leaders, Christian Cardona and Louis Grech, wearing a €1,000 pair of Valentino Rock Stud shoes.

She also wore a rather more modestly priced (€160) Chanel pearl double C logo necklace.

Mrs Muscat has no known or legitimate income of her own, and her husband’s annual salary, after deductions for income tax and national insurance, is around €55,000. Annual tuition fees for their two children, at San Anton School, are €7,000 – but those are covered by his leasing of the family car to the government for his own use as the Prime Minister’s official vehicle, for which he receives €7,500 a year.

Last year, the Prime Minister and Mrs Muscat spent €11,000 – one-fifth of their legitimate declared income – on six nights at a Dubai hotel over Easter. That was just the hotel bill; flights for the family of four, and other holiday and travel expenses, were over and above.