Werritty grilled as financial riddle emerges

GOVERNMENT officials yesterday grilled Defence Secretary Liam Fox’s close friend Adam Werrity at a secret location, as new questions emerged over how he funded trips abroad with the minister.

Dr Fox has acknowledged he acted inappropriately in allowing his former room-mate and best man Mr Werritty – who ran a now-defunct defence consultancy called Security Futures – to join him on numerous overseas trips and to arrange a meeting in Dubai with a potential supplier.

However, as he went in to answer questions, it emerged that Mr Werritty’s consultancies had made just £20,000 in the past four years. As he was neither employed by the government nor the Conservatives, there were queries over how he could afford 18 foreign trips with Dr Fox.

In a first sign that Dr Fox might be losing support from the Tory back-benches, a senior Tory MP and former army officer, Patrick Mercer, has publicly questioned whether he can continue in his job while he is being distracted by the allegations.

Further pressure mounted from the American businessman at the heart of the allegations – Harvey Boulter, of defence contractor Porton – who said he believed Mr Werritty was “the facilitator” for meetings with Dr Fox and had been surprised to learn he was not formally employed by him.

Mr Boulter said it was only a “half-truth” for Dr Fox to suggest that a meeting in Dubai, which has led to questions about the Defence Secretary’s conduct, was the result of a chance encounter with Mr Werritty in a restaurant.

Mr Boulter had a meeting with Mr Werritty in April, following which the “clear intention” was that the “adviser” would arrange for him to see Dr Fox, the Porton chief executive said.

It was “coincidence” that he happened to bump into Mr Werritty in a Dubai restaurant on the eve of Dr Fox’s arrival in the Gulf emirate, said Mr Boulter.

But he added: “It is not right to characterise the meeting as an accidental occurrence. You don’t get to meet ministers over a glass of wine in a restaurant, and that wasn’t the case here.”

Mr Werritty has already admitted he gave out business cards saying he was a consultant to Dr Fox until July, when he was told to stop handing them out.

Papers produced by the Ministry of Defence earlier this week also showed that, along with his 18 trips abroad with the Defence Secretary, Mr Werritty met him 22 other times in the ministry and was with him on 104 days in the 18 months since Dr Fox took up his post. This did not include private, undiaried meetings.

There are continuing concerns over why Mr Werritty had access to high-level meetings – including talks with the Israeli ambassador and dinner with the new head of international forces in Afghanistan – when he did not have proper security clearance.

Downing Street said the inquiry by Sir Gus O’Donnell – who took over the investigation from MoD permanent secretary Ursula Brennan – would address the “remaining questions” surrounding the case.

“There is a process under way. The Cabinet Secretary is leading it. He will address the remaining questions people have been asking,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

“The objective is to establish the facts and get the full picture. That is what we will do.”

Meanwhile, a senior Conservative back-bencher warned that the controversy was in danger of becoming a “distraction” for the MoD.

Patrick Mercer, a former army officer, said that ministry staff needed to be able to get on with running campaigns in Afghanistan and Libya without having to worry about “non-defence issues”.

“The Ministry of Defence has been distracted by this,” the MP for Newark said.

“The last thing that busy civil servants and busy uniformed staff need inside the Ministry of Defence is this sort of distraction with their boss.

“It is not helping having the Secretary of State for Defence thoroughly distracted by non-defence issues.

“The Ministry of Defence has got a difficult job to do, it is under a great deal of pressure, it needs its boss – who has my full support and respect – to get on with the difficult job that he has to do.”