British MPs quiz Fox on adviser controversy

The UK's Defence Secretary Liam Fox faces a grilling by MPs today over whether he has breached ministerial guidelines as more claims surfaced about his working relationship with a former flatmate.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will also consider the early findings of an internal investigation into the Secretary of State’s dealings with self-styled adviser Adam Werritty as pressure continued to mount on the beleaguered Tory Cabinet minister.

Dr Fox issued an apology last night for allowing “distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend” when he landed back in Britain after an official visit to Libya.

He conceded that his “frequent contacts with (Werritty) may have given an impression of wrongdoing” and insisted he “learned lessons” from the furore.

Last night, however, more claims emerged about the meetings Mr Werritty brokered and the access he enjoyed to government and parliament, despite having no official role.

According to the Daily Telegraph, financial records from 2005/06 show Dr Fox’s Commons office budgeted for a £690 National Insurance payment relating to Mr Werritty’s employment.

It claims the payment suggests that he had been employed by Dr Fox in the previous year, when he was the director of a company called UK Health, despite never having been issued with a House of Commons security pass.

A spokesman for Dr Fox said the payment could be a mistake or a hangover from previous “internship years”.

He said: “There is no record of Adam Werritty working in the Parliamentary office that year. We will urgently be seeking details from Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to see if this is a legacy payment to HMRC from an internship years before or an accounting error.”

The Times claimed Mr Werritty had a reputation among lobbyists as the “go-to guy” for gaining access to the Defence Secretary.

It also suggested he was not registered as a member of Dr Fox’s Westminster office, despite running a charity from it, which would break Commons rules.

Dr Fox insisted “at no stage did I or my department provide classified information or briefings to Mr Werritty or assist with his commercial work – let alone benefit personally from this work”.

He apologised to Mr Cameron when the pair spoke yesterday and it is understood the Prime Minister wants to keep him in the key Cabinet job if possible.

The Secretary of State has insisted he will “answer all questions in the House of Commons” today. He is due to appear in the chamber for the regular bout of defence questions but is expected to also make a statement on the controversy.

He is likely to be quizzed on the involvement Mr Werritty had in arranging meetings, particularly a Dubai meeting with defence industry chiefs, as well his appearance on overseas trips and formal events with the Secretary of State.

Despite claims Mr Werritty had never been involved in official engagements, footage was uncovered over the weekend that showed him meeting Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Dr Fox in a London hotel last year.

Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy has written to the Prime Minister calling for a full investigation into the controversy, claiming there are “significant shortcomings” in the current internal investigation.

He told Mr Cameron it was a “totally inadequate response to the scale and nature of the charges that the Secretary of State now faces”.

Former Armed Forces Minister Kevan Jones said: “This is a remarkable admission. Just 24 hours ago Liam Fox called these allegations ’baseless’ and now he has apologised, but yet is denying any wrongdoing took place.

“The Defence Secretary simply cannot have sensitive meetings behind the back of his officials. This is incredibly serious and this response is incredible.

“This is a man in denial. We need a full explanation of the very serious questions which remain.

“There is no need for new procedures, but there is a need for a Secretary of State who abides by existing ones.”

Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, criticised Dr Fox for his “strange” change of language as he tried to fend off the allegations over the last three days.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, she said: “He needs to make it very clear what the nature of this relationship was, why there was this unprecedented access and explain this rather strange change of language which happened over the last three days from ’Oh, this is just a trumped-up story’ to ’I gave the impression’ to ’lines were blurred’.

“This is defence, it’s an area where national security is always at the top of everyone’s mind, where industry and suppliers are very much in touch with politicians, and therefore meetings without civil servants when you are the Secretary of State should simply not happen.”

Greg Hands, Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said there was “insinuation, innuendo and smear” in many of the allegations surrounding the Defence Secretary.

Mr Hands, also appearing on BBC Breakfast, said: “Nothing illegal has happened, Dr Fox has made no commercial gain from this, there have been no breaches of national security and Dr Fox has actually apologised for the much smaller matters for which he was at fault.

“Frankly, there’s quite a lot of insinuation, innuendo and smear involved in many of these allegations.

“Dr Fox has said that he is willing to answer all questions and I imagine that will be the case this afternoon in the House of Commons.”

Asked about the Daily Telegraph’s claim that Mr Werritty had received taxpayers’ money for his role as an adviser to Dr Fox, Mr Hands said: “I think that will probably be a question which is best put to Ipsa (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) who administer payments to staff, as to precisely why that payment was made in 2005.”