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HomeNewsBritish defence minister resigns in 'best man' scandal

British defence minister resigns in ‘best man’ scandal

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BRITISH defence secretary Liam Fox resigned on Friday (October 14) amid a spiralling scandal over his links to the best man at his wedding, becoming the first Conservative minister to quit the coalition government.

Fox, 50, who played a key role in Britain’s military campaigns in Libya and Afghanistan, stepped down after it emerged that his friend Adam Werritty posed as a government adviser and took a string of foreign jaunts with the minister.

Philip Hammond, the Conservative former transport minister, was named as Fox’s replacement by Prime Minister David Cameron, the defence ministry said. Justine Greening, a junior finance minister, will replace Hammond.

“I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred. The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days,” Fox wrote to Cameron in his resignation letter.

“I am very sorry for this.”

Cameron said Fox had helped prevent Libyans being “massacred” by Moamer Kadhafi’s forces and had done a “superb job” since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power after elections in May 2010.

With rumours swirling in the press about the nature of Fox’s relationship with his 34-year-old former flatmate, Fox apologised to parliament earlier this week and admitted that Werritty had accompanied him on 18 foreign trips since he became minister.

Werritty also visited Fox 22 times at the defence ministry in London during the same period and printed business cards describing himself as Fox’s adviser despite having no official government role.

But the killer blow came on Friday with reports that financial backers linked to Israel and a private security firm had funded Werritty’s first class travel and hotel stays during his time with the minister.

Werritty was interviewed for a second time on Friday by civil servants as part of an inquiry ordered by Cameron last week into whether Fox broke the ministerial code of conduct, a government source told reporters.

The results of the inquiry are expected next week, the source added.

Fox said in his letter to Cameron that he had “repeatedly said that the national interest must always come before personal interest. I now have to hold myself to my own standard”.

Cameron thanked Fox – Britain’s sixth defence minister in ten years – for overseeing “fundamental changes” at the bloated Ministry of Defence and in modernising the armed forces as part of wider government cost-cutting.

Philip Hammond (55), the new defence minister was appointed transport minister when the coalition government took office in May 2010, but has now been moved into one of the toughest jobs in the cabinet.

Hammond comes from a business background and has not taken the defence brief before, despite serving in numerous departments during the Conservative party’s 13 years of opposition, which began as he entered the House of Commons in 1997.

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