Mgarr Developments aside, how does Adrian Delia plan to pay his other debts off the Opposition leader’s salary?

The Sunday Times reported last Sunday that Adrian Delia, the Nationalist Party leadership contender who is at the centre of a storm of scandal even before taking up the post, has personal loans of €729,545. These are entirely separate to the €7.2 million to which he and his wife have stood surety in their personal capacity for a loan taken from HSBC Bank 11 years ago and never repaid.

Those personal loans are divided as follows: €580,635 – HSBC Bank, €121,321 – Banif Bank, and €27,588 – Bank of Valletta.

Mr Delia has said repeatedly – and unconvincingly – that he plans to divest himself of his company shares and his vested interest in his law firm if he becomes Opposition leader. The state salary paid to the leader of the Opposition is adequate but hardly generous, and yet Mr Delia has a dependent wife, five children at San Anton School where the fees run into several thousands every years, and a full-time housekeeper.

The Opposition leader’s salary will not be enough to pay the private-school fees for five children, run his household, feed and clothe his wife and children, pay the housekeeper’s salary, and fund the occasional holiday. So how does he plan to pay the bank the €729,545 which he and his wife, and them alone, owe to three banks in a non-business capacity?

True, as Opposition leader he will have a free car, petrol, a driver and telephone bills paid for him, so some savings will be made there. But that’s about it.

Journalists, councillors and party members with a vote should set aside their embarrassment in speaking about money matters – this is not ‘private life’ but a very legitimate and relevant issue – and ask how Mr Delia plans to keep current lifestyle off an Opposition leader’s salary while paying three quarters of a million euros to three banks.

I would ask him myself, but communication between us has broken down on the basis that I don’t like gaslighting and being lied to with a straight face.

How is he going to pay his bills off the Opposition leader’s salary, let alone pay his three quarters of a million in personal loans from three banks?