Mugged by a Fox

A businessman who donated money to Adam Werrity at the request of former Defence Secretary Liam Fox says he feels he was "mugged". Mr Jon Moulton gave £35,000 to a charity set up by Mr Werritty which he now regards as a waste.

Liam Fox left the cabinet after admitting being careless in his dealings around Mr Werrity and allowing him to arrange meetings with a potential contractor without civil servants being present. Mr Werrity apparently also carried business cards stating he was an adviser to "the Rt Hon Liam Fox MP had often attended Mr Fox's office and been present on a number of official trips abroad. Police may be considering investigating Mr Werritty for possible fraud but despite the controversy around him, Mr Fox has maintained he is innocent of any wrongdoing and has said that he “looks forward to a return to the Conservative front bench”.

On the whole Cork Monkey thinks the investigation - which should be quick and thorough – should determine how the media treats Mr Werrity but there are two things to consider.

Some say what we are likely to get is a long drawn out investigation that addresses some esoteric questions but doesn’t get to the nub of the matter – did dishonesty occur – or more seriously – was some shadow policy being played out here. We need the investigation to investigate the right things as we need to know how much, if any, undue influence on UK policy or interests was bought as a result of the actions of either man.  

The other thing to consider is that if it was one of the civil servants that had done this rather than a Minister we rather fancy they would be in prison right now and we would not be discussing if this is a media witch hunt or not - in these cases - Ministers do seem to be able to avoid much of the consequence of their actions.

CM