Investigation To Show Liam Fox 'Breached Ministerial Code Of Conduct' As Labour Demand Statement

Investigation To Show Liam Fox 'Breached Ministerial Code Of Conduct'

MPs have been told they will get a chance to debate Liam Fox following the publication of the cabinet secretary's report into his conduct.

In an unusual intervention, the speaker John Bercow has said he will grant an urgent question on Wednesday about the report into the former defence secretary's conduct if no government minister makes a statement.

Sir Gus O'Donnell has been looking into claims that Fox broke the ministerial code by allowing his friend Adam Werritty to accompany him on 18 overseas trips since the election.

The report, expected to be published at 16.30, is expected to find the former defence secretary did break the code but did not profit financially.

Fox also allowed his best man Werritty access to the Ministry Of Defence on more than a dozen occasions, despite Werritty holding no official government position.

Sir Gus is expected to be "damning" about the behaviour of Fox, who resigned on Friday. It also emerged today that Werrity also met defence ministers Gerald Howarth and Lord Astor, raising questions about whether we lobbied them on behalf of his backers.

Labour had demanded that David Cameron makes a statement to MPs on the affair, but the Speaker turned down Ed Miliband's request for an Urgent Question on the matter.

In his resignation letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, Fox said he had “mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred”.

The prime minister's official spokesperson has promised the report will be "transparent": "We have asked Gus O'Donnell to establish the facts and we will be clear about what those facts are. Gus has not been asked to make recommendations. He has been asked to establish the facts and that's what he will do."

Labour has previously called for the investigation into the conduct of Liam Fox to be widened to include all ministers to ensure no one else in government behaved the same way.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said that that Fox's resignation on Friday was "not the answer to the problem" and warned there were "wider lessons to be learned".

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