Liam Fox cannot be scapegoated for the government's decision to perform an embarrassing U-turn over which type of jet to buy for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, Labour has said.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday morning, defence secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the long trailed announcement that he had opted to buy the jump-jet variant of the US-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - as planned by the former Labour government.
The decision - which had been expected before Easter - is believed to have been finally signed off by David Cameron at Tuesday's meeting of the National Security Council.
Under the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the coalition had planned to switch to the carrier variant - the F-35C - arguing it was a more capable aircraft and, unlike the F-35B jump jet, would be inter-operable with the US and French navies.
But Hammond told the Commons the costs of fitting the necessary catapults and arrestor gear - "cats and traps" - had more than doubled to £2bn.
The U-turn is awkward for David Cameron as he had strongly criticised the previous Labour government for its decision to buy the jump jet - the plane he has now agreed to buy.
Labour's shadow defence secretary Jim Muprhy told MPs today that "two years have been wasted" and that £250m had been "squandered".
"The prime minister personally derided a policy he is now defending," Murphy said. "He can not scapegoat the former defence secretary (Fox) for this decision."
He added: "It's time the prime minister started to take responsibility, it should be him who is at that Despatch Box apologising."
But Hammond said it was right to revert to the jump jet varient of the plane as it had emerged that it would take too long for the F-35C to be delivered to the Royal Navy.
"When the facts change the responsible thing to do is to examine the decisions you have made and to be willing to change your mind however inconvenient," he said.
"I am not prepared to see us go beyond 2020 without a carrier strike capability."
The defence secretary also hit out at Labour's past management of the Ministry of Defence budget.
"It was they who ordered the ships without having the money to pay for them," he said.
Former Labour defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said Hammond had made the right decision, but attacked the "shambles" of having ditched Labour's initial plans in the first place which he said led the government up "an extremely expensive "cul-de-sac".