Liam Fox reveals hopes of return to government

Former defence secretary, who resigned over links with Adam Werritty, says he has taken personal responsibility for mistakes

The former defence secretary Liam Fox has revealed that he hopes to return to government after taking "personal responsibility" for his mistakes.

In his first interview since resigning earlier this month, the North Somerset MP told BBC Radio Bristol that sitting on the backbenches would be interesting because he would be "freer to say what I want".

But Fox made it clear that he does not believe the damage to his political career will prove fatal.

"I would certainly like to get back to the frontbench how quickly is another matter and, for the moment, I will enjoy having a little bit of extra time," he said.

"There are one or two projects that I want to get involved in on the charitable side, and to devote some time to things that I have wanted to do and been unable to."

But Downing Street appeared to play down speculation of a Fox return to government. A spokeswoman said: "It is perhaps unsurprising that he has aspirations to return to the front bench. He did good work while he was defence secretary, but he resigned only a few days ago."

Fox quit after revelations about his links to close friend Adam Werritty and prior to the publication of a report from the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, which found he had breached the ministerial code.

The report revealed that Fox had blocked civil servants! from at tending key meetings alongside Werritty, had failed to tell his permanent secretary that he had solicited funds to bankroll Werritty, and had ignored private office requests to distance himself from him.

Asked about the events that led to his resignation, Fox said he had taken responsibility for what had happened.

He admitted it had been a mistake to meet a defence supplier in Dubai without a Ministry of Defence official present, even though someone from his private office had offered to attend.

"We were sitting in a coffee lounge in a hotel it was hardly a high-security meeting," he said.

"But nonetheless, given this was a potential defence supplier not, as it turns out, an actual defence supplier it still should have had somebody there. It's very easy to be careless, but you pay a price for it."

And he acknowledged that allowing Werritty, whom he met 40 times in the MoD and on trips abroad, to function as an independent adviser was a breach of the ministerial code, saying: "I should have kept a better separation there with hindsight, it seems easy."

He added: "You should be able to be at the highest level of government and say you have made a mistake.

"I take responsibility for it and I have always been very keen, all my political life, that people should shoulder personal responsibility. That is key to a decent society. If you say it, you should also be able to do it."

Fox reiterated his criticism of elements of the media coverage of his situation, which he said had been "quite disconcerting" and had made it difficult for him to do his ministerial job.

"One of my nephews, who is aged 14, was being doorstepped and that was unacceptable," he said. "I do think that we need to understand that we have to have a free press but a free press doesn't mean the press can do what they want."

He said he felt there was no rumour or innuendo that had not been written about him, but stressed he was only going to comment on "substantiv! e issues ", explaining: "Gossip is for gossipers."

He defended his practice of arranging "downtime" with Werritty and other friends during official visits overseas, saying: "I would finish ministerial work and then we would very regularly, in places like Dubai, meet up with friends in the region. So there wasn't any lack of separation between ministerial and private time.

"Some of this coverage, you would think ministers weren't allowed to have private time which is, of course, absurd."

Asked whether he had embarrassed the government, Fox said: "Under this government, ministers make a mistake, ministers admit a mistake and ministers resign. That is quite different from clinging to office at all cost, which was what we saw under the previous government."


guardian.co.uk 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

'Son of star wars' base in Yorkshire finally ready to open

European debt crisis: 29 November 2011

As China Rolls Ahead, Fear Follows