Werritty faces questions as doubts surface over earnings

Dr Fox yesterday apologised to the House of Commons for “blurring” the lines between his professional and personal life. The prime minister gave Dr Fox his backing, pending the findings of a full report into the defence secretary’s relationship with Mr Werritty.

However figures released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last night showed that Mr Werritty accompanied Dr Fox on 18 of his 48 visits overseas on government business. The list of meetings show that Dr Fox and Mr Werritty met during visits to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tampa, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Israel, Washington and Sri Lanka.

Fresh questions emerged about who funded Mr Werritty’s numerous business trips abroad. According to The Times, the three known consultancies owned by Mr Werritty earned him little more than £20,000 in four years.

Dr Fox told MPs that Mr Werritty’s income was “not dependent on any transactional behaviour to maintain his income”. But senior civil servants investigating the allegations of misconduct are likely to interview Mr Werritty about his involvement with the MoD.

Labour said that it was “beyond doubt” that Dr Fox had breached ministerial code when he attended a meeting in Dubai with representative of defence company Cellcrypt that was arranged by Mr Werritty.

The new figures also show that the defence secretary met Mr Werritty at the MoD on 22 separate occasions, rather than the 14 that were initially claimed.

The defence secretary told MPs: “Mr Werritty was never present at regular departmental meetings. During private meetings we did not discuss either commercial or defence matters, he had no access to classified documents, nor was he briefed on classified matters.”

Read more here: PM backs Liam Fox pending full report into Werritty row.