Editorial: Defence debacle Wednesday, 12 October 2011 02:53

British Defence Secretary Liam Fox is in the dock. At the core of the furore surrounding Fox is the man at the centre of all the allegations – Adam Werritty, his former flat mate and best man at his wedding. An interim report into his conduct by Ministry of Defence permanent secretary Ursula Brennan found that since becoming defence secretary 18 months ago, Fox had met Werritty 22 times in the main ministry building and accompanied him or met him on 18 of his 48 visits abroad, including ministerial conferences and family holidays. The meetings seemed to go beyond friendship. Werritty’s globe-trotting existence over the last two years and how he funded his trips has left many intriguing questions. In the past 12 months, Werritty flew to Sri Lanka, Dubai (twice), Bahrain, Washington, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Tampa in Florida. And none of the flights were paid for by the ministry.

Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged that Fox had made “serious mistakes” in allowing a close friend to operate as his advisor despite having no official government role. But an embarrassed Fox issued a defiant account of his conduct in the House of Commons. Fox apologised for his misconduct but his defense raised more questions than answers. Werritty had regular access to Fox’s diary, something Fox agreed was inappropriate, and used knowledge of Fox’s movements to arrange meetings for defence contractors. Werritty was present at a meeting between Fox and the British ambassador designate to Israel, something Fox admitted was wrong. Fox’s diary failed to keep a proper distinction between personal, political and government business, especially on overseas trips. Fox knew that Werritty was distributing a business card describing himself as adviser to the defence secretary in June, and told him to stop, but allowed him to produce a second card still describing himself as an adviser.

Fox is a member of Cameron’s Conservative party, although he has more traditional views than the prime minister and they have clashed in the past. Fox has served as defence secretary since the coalition took power in May 2010, a high profile role with almost 10,000 British troops in Afghanistan and Britain helping to protect civilians in Libya after the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. Fox came into conflict with Cameron and Finance Minister George Osborne last year when he was fighting to protect defence from deep budget cuts. In the end, the defence budget was cut by eight percent, against cuts of around 20 percent in most departments.    Fox stood for the party leadership in 2005 and was defeated by Cameron.

The opposition Labour party has been pressing Fox on whether his relationship with Werritty put national security at risk, but the defence secretary received strong support from fellow Conservative MPs in parliament. Number 10 sources acknowledged that it would be serious for Fox if the inquiry finds he knew Werritty was making money from his access. All of Fox’s meetings with Werritty need to be properly accounted for and his behaviour fully investigated before any action is taken on the embattled defence secretary.