The latest statement by the Opposition on the new buses is "complete nonsense and full of contradictions", according to Number Six.

A statement released this evening says that the Opposition now say that they would publish the full details and costs of the tender process for people to make up their own minds. The problem, says the Government, is that all this “sounds extremely hollow”. This is because the Government are “simply following the procedure that the GSD themselves put into practice for the sixteen years that they were in office, whereby the details of certain tenders were not published on the basis that this was commercial in confidence.” Number Six says it is therefore a bit rich for the GSD to say something different now that they are in Opposition from what they actually used to do when they were in Government.

A statement concluded: “They have failed to explain why the contract for the maintenance of the old buses was directly allocated to A M Capurro and Sons Ltd and why the lifespan of those buses did not meet the expectation of 15-20 years even though £ 2.7 million was spent on their maintenance.

“They have also failed to explain why they are being critical of works to accommodate the new buses in Europa Road when they themselves presided over tens of thousands of pounds of works in different parts of Gibraltar, including Europa Road, in order to accommodate the buses that they ordered at the time.

“The reality is that every time they are caught out, the Opposition simply shift their position to a different argument on the buses as well as on everything else.”