My question emailed to Phyllis Muscat this morning

This morning I rang the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Taskforce number and asked to speak to Phyllis Muscat, but she wouldn’t come to the phone.

I was asked to send my enquiry to [email protected], so I did so. I am reproducing the question here.

Dear Mrs Muscat,

It has been brought to my attention that your daughter, Michaela Muscat, has been engaged at the Commonwealth Investment and Enterprise Council, which will be holding its Commonwealth Business Forum as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta later this month, and that she working as some form of assistant to its chairman, Jonathan Marland.

Please would you confirm or deny that this is in fact the case, or provide an explanation as required.

With thanks,

Daphne Caruana Galizia

The background information I have is that it was (this should go without saying) Phyllis Muscat herself who used her position as head of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2015 taskforce to secure this position for her daughter, who lives in London where she is researching full-time for a post-graduate degree in the sociology of Islamic finance.

Miss Muscat is now paid what has been described to me as “an exorbitant salary” by the Commonwealth Investment and Enterprise Council, using Commonwealth funds, while her mother guarantees access for its chairman, Jonathan Marland, to the Prime Minister of Malta and other members of the Maltese government’s inner circle.

Marland, who was treasurer to the Conservative Party, is a frequent visitor to Malta and has reciprocated by hosting Muscat in London several times for the purpose of introducing him to “business operators”, though it is not clear whether this is strictly on government business.

He resigned from his position as David Cameron’s trade envoy in January 2013 – he was previously Cameron’s Energy Minister – saying that he wished to pursue his business interests. Marland was not an elected politician but sat in the House of Lords as The Lord Marland. He had been given a life peerage in 2006 as Baron Marland.