[12] After 2013, Abela Advocates held a licence (IIP 161) for the sale of Maltese citizenship (Individual Investors Programme), in the name of Robert's wife Lydia.

[5] He claimed that he started off transporting sick people to the polling stations in 1996, and worked behind the scenes for many years in other roles, such as representing the party on current affairs programmes as requested by Joseph Muscat and lately as his legal advisor in Cabinet.

[15] Abela was described as appealing to voters with no political ties, as well as the perfect replacement to attract Marie Louise Coleiro Preca's votes in the sixth district of Siggiewi, Luqa and Qormi.

[16] In June 2017, at the age of 39, Abela was elected to the Parliament of Malta after his first attempt at contesting the sixth district, including Siggiewi, Luqa and Qormi, was successful.

[18] In his years at the Parliament, Abela was never an outspoken critic of Muscat; in the fallout of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder, he remarked that he would have "acted earlier" to remove minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri from their posts had he been the leader.

[14] Following the announcement of Joseph Muscat's upcoming resignation due to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the ensuing protests, deputy prime minister Chris Fearne was considered the front-runner to replace Muscat as leader of the party and prime minister, and other hopefuls (including Ian Borg and Miriam Dalli) were reportedly pressured not to run in order to allow a quick transition by Christmas 2019 with the formality of a vote by party members for a single candidate.

[22] Abela's leadership campaign was focused on party members and aimed at striking a chord with the traditional Labour themes (social housing, free medicines for the elderly and better employment conditions for blue-collar workers)[9][23] while distancing himself from the coziness of Muscat with big business.

[14] He also called for a crack-down on cheap labour migrant workers, who he accused of repressing local salaries, by proposing that employers be allowed to hire foreigners only if able to pay them fully on the books and while respecting work condition regulations.

[23] Abela, a backbencher with no ministerial experience, presented himself as a candidate of continuity, pledging to maintain the same cabinet as Muscat's, as well as the same staff at the powerful Office of the Prime Minister, in opposition to Chris Fearne, whose campaign for a clean slate at Castille created apprehension among insiders.

[31][32] In 2024, Abela was heavily criticised by the opposition, as well as the judiciary, after accusing an inquiring Magistrate of engaging in "Political Terrorism" after criminal charges were filed against his disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat.

[34] Abela's policies and maladministration are also regularly criticized by blogger Mark Camilleri, former PN minister Jason Azzopardi and several independent media houses.

On 24 January 2025, Yorgen Fenech, one of the alleged masterminds accused of orchestrating the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was granted bail.