David Maddox: Labour’s hunters found themselves cornered…

IN THE good old days people dressed in red coats were rather handy at fox hunting, but if yesterday’s events in the Commons were anything to go by times have changed.

It may simply be because Labour actually banned hunting with hounds, but as Defence Secretary Liam Fox faced the most difficult moment of his career, apparently cornered over his allegedly dubious dealings with a friend – Adam Werritty – he did not seem to be prepared to run.

Instead, the baying pack was the one behind him as Tory MPs crammed on to the government benches to support their man.

The baying from the Labour benches was slightly more muted, and soon it appeared that the party’s master of hounds for the day – shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy – looked more like the hunted man. Why? Well the Tories had just caught on to the fact that Mr Murphy and his front-bench team had been enjoying a trip abroad at the expense of Cellcrypt, the company at the heart of the allegations.

Dr Fox himself turned on his attackers. He called for “transparency all round” as he accused Labour of a “conflict of interest”. Maybe Labour should have tried shooting instead of Fox hunting; they weren’t short of ammunition.

There was the bizarre coincidence of Dr Fox, Mr Werrity and the businessman at the heart of the problems, Harvey Boulter, all being in a Dubai restaurant at the same time on tables next to one another. Then there was the admission from Dr Fox that he had met with Mr Werrity no fewer than 40 times since he became Defence Secretary, including 18 trips abroad.

But Labour MPs appeared to fail to hit their target. “If anybody can show me where I have done something wrong,” Dr Fox said.

They tried. But perhaps the genuine cause for worry for the Defence Secretary was that Prime Minister David Cameron, whose less than ringing support had gone as far as saying “give the chap time to prove his innocence”, was not present.