British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday demanded an urgent report into claims that his defence minister allowed a close friend to influence government business, while offering him his full support.
The row intensified with new allegations that Werritty had brokered a meeting in Dubai hoping to sell phone call encryption technology to the British military
Cameron’s office said he did not want to wait until an internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) inquiry reports back on the allegations against Liam Fox in a fortnight, but wanted a preliminary report setting out the facts by tomorrow.
However, a spokesman for Downing Street told AFP that Fox, a member of the prime minister’s Conservative party, still had Cameron’s “full confidence”.
Fox ordered the MoD inquiry last Friday into claims that his former flatmate and best man, Adam Werritty, posed as his adviser and had privileged access to him despite having no official government role or security clearance.
But the row intensified with new allegations in yesterday’s newspapers that Werritty had brokered a meeting in Dubai in June between Fox and a company hoping to sell phone call encryption technology to the British military.
The claims overshadowed Fox’s first visit to Libya on Friday and yesterday, during which he announced €580,000 new funding for the National Transitional Council’s fight against arms proliferation.
The defence secretary declined to answer questions about Werritty when quizzed by journalists in Tripoli, according to the BBC.
In London, Cameron’s spokesman initially said he would wait for the outcome of the MoD inquiry, led by the ministry’s top civil servant.
But as the row gathered pace, Downing Street said Cameron had asked another senior civil servant to look at the initial findings of the MoD inquiry and ensure they were on his desk by tomorrow.