Fox urged to give up his £17,000 pay-off for quitting government

FORMER defence secretary Liam Fox is under pressure to forgo his £17,000 pay-off for leaving the government, as he braced himself for the release of the report into his conduct today.

Labour figures said they feared the report by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell into Dr Fox’s relationship with his best man and ex-flatmate Adam Werritty, a former defence industry consultant, could be a “whitewash”, after a Downing Street spokesman refused to confirm it would be published in full.

The government was still unable to say yesterday if or when it would publish a list of contacts Mr Werritty had with other ministers or special advisers.

It also emerged that a bill to control the activities of lobbyists, promised by the government this year, will now not be brought forward until next year and will not be in place until 2013 at the earliest.

The fallout over Dr Fox and Mr Werritty blew up in the Commons yesterday as Education Secretary Michael Gove was slapped down by Speaker John Bercow for taking too long to reply after he was challenged about his links to Mr Werritty.

The concerns came as Labour MP John Mann, who has asked the police to investigate Dr Fox and Mr Werritty, demanded that the former defence secretary should not benefit from his £17,000 pay-off.

Mr Mann also confirmed he had written to police asking for a fraud investigation to be launched.

“Mr Werritty gave out business cards saying he was an adviser to Dr Fox,” he said.

“If that is not the case and he was getting money – for whatever purpose – by misrepresenting his relationship with the defence secretary, that cannot be right.”

Dr Fox was forced to resign after a series of revelations last week over the access he gave to Mr Werritty, who accompanied him on 18 out of 48 official foreign trips and visited the Ministry of Defence 22 times.

He handed out cards claiming to be the defence secretary’s adviser, even though he was not employed by the government or the Conservatives.

After days of pressure, Dr Fox quit after links were made between wealthy donors and Mr Werritty’s first-class travel around the world. This included allegations from venture capitalist Jon Moulton, who claimed Dr Fox had asked him to donate to Pargav, a not-for-profit company set up by Mr Werritty.

Despite opposition concerns over a possible “whitewash”, there was speculation that Dr Fox would be criticised in Sir Gus’s report for trying to carry out his own independent foreign policy while a minister.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said it had not yet been decided whether any parts of the Cabinet Secretary’s report would be redacted, or whether the document would be published in full.

Sir Gus is not expected to make recommendations on ministers’ contacts with lobbyists, as his remit was limited to establishing the facts about Mr Werritty’s activities.

“We will be transparent about this,” said the Prime Minister’s spokesman. “We have asked Gus O’Donnell to establish the facts and we will be clear about what those facts are.”

An Electoral Commission spokesman said it was considering a complaint that Dr Fox had breached donations legislation.