BRITAIN’S DEFENCE minister faces continued allegations of cronyism and misconduct after it emerged that a businessman and close friend had met him frequently and joined him on official trips abroad, posing as an adviser.
Liam Fox is under pressure from Downing Street to answer fresh questions about his relationship with Adam Werritty, the best man at his wedding and a businessman with defence interests, after it emerged the pair had met at least 40 times since Mr Fox became defence secretary.
Prime minister David Cameron said yesterday he had confidence in Mr Fox, but a Downing Street spokesman warned that doubts remained whether he had faced a conflict of interest as a result of the friendship.
The official said: “Serious mistakes were made in allowing the distinction between professional responsibilities and personal loyalties to be blurred and this has clearly raised concerns about impropriety and potential conflicts of interest.”
In a sign that the prime minister was beginning to lose patience with the political storm engulfing Mr Fox, Downing Street cautioned that Mr Cameron wanted answers in “days rather than weeks”. Mr Werritty will be called in to explain whether he benefited financially from his friendship with the defence secretary.
Downing Street’s warning followed an appearance in parliament by Mr Fox to face hostile questions. He told MPs: “I accept that it was a mistake for distinctions to be blurred between my responsibilities as defence secretary and my personal loyalty to a friend.” However he was less clear about whether Mr Werritty had benefited financially by lobbying for defence companies.
Mr Fox said Mr Werritty was “not dependent on any transactional behaviour to maintain his income” from those meetings. He insisted Mr Werritty, who is not a government official and does not have security clearance, was never party to classified information.
Mr Fox admitted that a meeting he held in Dubai in June with Mr Werritty and the head of Porton Group, a private equity company, to discuss possible ministry of defence procurement, had been arranged in advance. However he insisted it came about as a result of a chance meeting with Mr Werritty on the previous day, rather than because of lobbying by Porton Group to gain access to the defence secretary.
He apologised for holding meetings with Mr Werritty without the presence of a civil servant, in apparent contradiction of strict rules designed to prevent ministers pursuing private business interests.
Although his contacts with Mr Werritty might have “given an impression of wrongdoing” in the light of his friend’s defence-related business interests, neither Mr Fox nor his department had ever provided Mr Werritty with classified data to assist with his commercial work.
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the secretary of state had driven a “coach and horses through the rules”. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)