Adrian Delia put Labour cabinet minister’s son on his office payroll after 2013 general election

Nationalist Party leadership election frontrunner Adrian Delia put Luke Dalli on his office payroll after Labour won the general election in 2013.

Luke Dalli is inseparable from the Prime Minister’s Office blogger and Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield, with whom he produces a weekly show for the Labour Party’s television station. Both travel together with the Prime Minister and Mrs Muscat, on holidays.

His mother is the cabinet minister Helena Dalli. She had a seat in the cabinet already at the time Adrian Delia put her son on his payroll. His father is the former Carters supermarket owner and current building development contractor and Valletta boutique hotel owner, Patrick Dalli.

At midday yesterday I sent questions directly to Dr Delia about this subject. Though I know he received them, he sent no acknowledgement, not even a simple “Received – will reply later today/tomorrow/as soon as I can”. I sent a reminder via somebody who helps with his campaign, to no avail. This morning I rang him at 9am to ask politely whether he planned to reply, so that I could run the story with his comments.

He said that he was driving to the office, and would deal with it when he got there. “Are there lots of questions?” he said. I resisted the urge to say that he should know the answer to that, and if he doesn’t have time to handle media enquiries at a time when he is bound to get lots of them and is obliged to answer, then he should have a spokesman to do it for him.

It’s almost 5pm. Eight hours have gone by since he told me he would answer the questions as soon as he got into the office, and still nothing – not even an “I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll get back to you by this evening if that’s all right.”

I’m not going to wait any longer, because something tells me he doesn’t plan to answer at all. Meanwhile, these are the questions to which Dr Delia is not replying. There are three others besides these, but they are about separate topics (two of his companies and one of his key campaign aides), so they will have to be the subject of other posts.

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Good afternoon, Dr Delia. Shortly after the 2013 general election, you put Luke Dalli – whose mother Helena Dalli was and still is in Joseph Muscat’s cabinet of government – on the payroll at your law office, Aequitas. (He eventually left when he was put on the state payroll at the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts.) Your office did not select Dalli through an interview process, but he was brought in at a level of personal familiarity through your close association with his father, Patrick Dalli.

1. What is the nature of your relationship with Patrick Dalli, who is married to one of Muscat’s closest cabinet ministers? By putting Helena Dalli’s son on your payroll, were you seeking to gain advantage or seek favour with her or the Labour Party/government in general, or protection from it in some shape or form?

2. Do you continue to maintain a relationship with Luke Dalli, who is extremely close to Prime Minister Muscat and to his aide Glenn Bedingfield, and travels with both of them regularly?

3. It has been noted that Glenn Bedingfield has been quick to leap to your defence in the face of criticism of your suitability as a candidate. Would you say that your personal relationship with Luke Dalli accounts for this? Are you in touch with Mr Bedingfield yourself?

4. Because he worked in your law office for well over a year, Luke Dalli will have been privy to information that you might perhaps prefer the Labour Party not to know. Does this not concern you?

Luke Dalli (left) with Prime Minister Muscat, former Labour Party secretary-general and Labour Party TV CEO Jason Micallef and fraudster Karl Stagno Navarra, who hosts a show on the Labour Party TV station. This picture was taken in the last general election campaign.

Luke Dalli on holiday, watching a football match with Prime Minister Muscat and cabinet minister Ian Borg.

Luke Dalli (right) with his closest friend Glenn Bedingfield (left) and the Labour mayor of Zurrieq, Natius Farrugia, in a scene from their show on the Labour Party’s TV station.

Luke Dalli and Glenn Bedingfield, following the Prime Minister’s wife, Mrs Muscat, on one of her long-distance swims.

Luke Dalli and Glenn Bedingfield in a promotional picture for their Labour Party TV show.