Liam Fox defends Werritty links to the Commons
The defence secretary, Liam Fox, has admitted there were 40 meetings over the last 16 months with personal friend Adam Werritty while on state duty.
He reaffirmed his position to the House of Commons, however, that no "wrongdoings" had been made in his links with Werritty, but accepted that he had: "Made a mistake."
Business cards
The MoD had previously denied that Werritty had been on any overseas trips representing the MoD. But Fox said today that he had been on "18 trips overseas." Fox also revealed that he hosted Werritty, who held his own business cards calling himself "Adviser to Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox", 22 times since June 2010.
Fox, who claimed to find out about the business cards following a report in the Guardian newspaper on August 19, 2011, responded by banning Werritty from all the MoD.
Dubai meeting
The shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy challenged Fox on the Dubai meeting where Werritty, sitting on a nearby table in a restaurant, organised a meeting with Harvey Boulter with the secretary as he came back on a routine visit to Afghanistan about cell crypt.
Murphy said: "How is it that Mr Werritty knows the diary of the defence secretary?"
Sri Lanka meetings
Fox said: "In July 2011 I gave a lecture hosted by Mrs Kadirgamar, the widow of my friend and Tamil former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadigamar who was assassinated by the LTTE in 2005. Mr Werritty, is a personal friend of Mrs Kadirgamar helped with the arrangements as it was a personal not a ministerial commitment."
Improvements in transparency
In response to the media hysteria, Fox said that: "Arrangements will be made to ensure the separation of powers which should ensure that no appearance of potential wrongdoing will occur in the future."
The prime minister, David Cameron, stated earlier in the day that he would wait until: "The full picture could be seen and that all the facts were in the open," before making any decisions on the future of his current defence minister.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.