The cunning of Dr Fox

Last Friday, after a week of revelations over wrongdoing in his affairs, the Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox, announced his resignation to the Prime Minister. The first Tory cabinet minister to resign has been replaced by Philip Hammond, whose Transport brief is now to be fulfilled by Treasury minister Justine Greening.

Dr Fox has been under a great deal of pressure to resign after it was discovered he had been granting inappropriate access to both himself and the Ministry of Defence to Adam Werritty, a friend and lobbyist. Mr Werritty accompanied the defence minister on a number of official trips, including visits to foreign diplomats and military figures. He also styled himself as an ‘Advisor to Rt. Hon. Dr. Liam Fox MP’ on business cards, despite having no official role in the Government.

Dr Fox apologised to the House of Commons on the 10th of October for his actions, but this was not enough to quench the controversy over his position, and he ultimately resigned on the 14th. The Prime Minister expressed his regret in seeing Dr Fox leave the Cabinet, while Labour’s shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy stated, ‘It was inconceivable that once a minister had been seen to break their own code of conduct on so many occasions that he could survive’.

At the time of writing, the Cabinet Office report on the extent of the relationship between Dr Fox and Mr Werritty in Government is yet to be fully released. Mr Werrittyhas been interviewed by civil servants as part of a Cabinet Office Enquiry, with Whitehall officials said to be alarmed with the details uncovered. The Enquiry has already confirmed that Liam Fox did indeed breach the ministerial code. However, the final report is expected to find that he did not benefit financially.