British prime minister David Cameron is backing embattled defence secretary Liam Fox, the prime minister's spokesman said today, the same day Mr Cameron is due to receive a report on whether Mr Fox broke ministerial rules.
Mr Fox is under pressure over allegations of risking national security by granting a high level of access to his friend Adam Werritty, who has defence-related business interests but has no official post within the defence ministry.
Asked whether the prime minister had full confidence in Mr Fox, a spokesman said "absolutely".
"The prime minister thinks that Liam Fox has been doing an excellent job as secretary of state (for defence). He inherited a department which was in a real mess and he has made great strides in tackling that," the spokesman added.
He said Mr Cameron had not yet received a report from a top civil servant into Mr Fox's conduct.
"We should establish the full picture before drawing conclusions," he added.
Mr Fox, one of the most senior members of Mr Cameron's government, apologised yesterday for giving "the impression of wrongdoing" by his frequent private meetings with Mr Werritty but said he would not quit.
But his apology failed to satisfy the newspapers, all full of stories about Mr Fox's contacts with Mr Werritty, or the opposition Labour Party, which demanded answers.
Labour's defence spokesman Jim Murphy said Mr Fox must give a full account of his relationship with Mr Werritty - who is reported to have passed himself off as an adviser to the defence secretary despite holding no official post - when he answers questions on defence in parliament later today.
"I'm not looking for his head, I'm looking for the truth," Mr Murphy told the BBC. "So far, we've had partial truth, evasion, avoidance, obfuscation and today all that's got to stop." "If he doesn't volunteer to stand here (in parliament) and make a full, detailed statement, I will use parliamentary procedures to summon him to force him to give that statement," he said.
If the stream of media reports about Mr Fox persists, Mr Cameron will have to make a difficult political calculation about whether to stand by him or abandon him.
Removing Mr Fox, seen as a right-wing "neo-con", from the cabinet, could upset the delicate balance of the coalition government and anger right-wingers in Mr Cameron's Conservative Party who already think he has made too many concessions to his Liberal Democrat junior coalition partners.
Mr Fox has denied helping Mr Werritty's commercial work, giving him access to classified information or personally profiting from the relationship, but said he accepted that he had mishandled his dealings with his former flat-mate and best man at his wedding.
Mr Murphy said the admission by Mr Fox, who lost to Mr Cameron in a bid for the Conservative Party leadership in 2005, was a "tacit admission" he had broken a ministerial code of conduct.
As defence secretary, Mr Fox is responsible for the 10,000 British troops in Afghanistan and Britain's leading role in the Nato air campaign against Muammar Gadafy's supporters in Libya.
His department is also in charge of awarding and managing billions of dollars' worth of defence contracts.
Media coverage has focused on Mr Werritty's presence on official overseas trips and suggested Mr Werritty may have set up a meeting between Mr Fox and another businessman in Dubai in June, which took place when ministry officials were not present.
Reuters