Westminster blog

Yesterday we brought you 11 questions which would help to illuminate the activities of Fox and Werrity. Here are another seven.

1] Adam Werritty was in Dubai in June this year. If it was “in a private capacity” – as the government has said – then why did he book into a hotel describing his position as “office of Dr Liam Fox”. And why was the meeting initially presented as a coincidence?

2] Allies of Fox are now telling sympathetic journalists that Werritty’s funding came from various international Atlanticist philanthropists. If so, why was he the director of six companies? And why has the MoD admitted it doesn’t know who Werrity’s “clients” are? Does he not have any clients after all? If he has independent funding from Tory donors then why has he held meetings with lobbyists?

3] Is Michael Hintze, founder of the CQS hedge fund, one of them? Werritty has been using a desk at CQS’s office in London, according to today’s Telegraph. Sources close to Hintze told the Telegraph that he regularly offered office space to “charities” he supported. Does he mean Atlantic Bridge, which has ceased to exist after criticism from the Charity Commission?

4] On Monday Fox said that the Sri Lanka Development Trust was a “mechanism that would allow reconstruction funding to occur through the private sector”. He said that when he entered government he passed control of it to Werritty and other unnamed associates. Why is SLDT not registered as a company or a charity in the UK? Is it registered somehow in Sri Lanka?

5] Fox said the aim of SLDT was to use a “proportion of profits made to fund development projects in Tamil communities“. Neither he nor Werritty sought to receive any share of the profits, he said. But why did Fox say that only a “proportion” of profits would go to good causes – where would the rest go?

6] What has the trust done in Sri Lanka? Who has it helped? Who funds it? Who runs it on the ground? Who are its trustees? The trust was used to pay for three trips to Sri Lanka by Liam Fox but what else has it done?

7] Who was the man staying at Fox’s flat when he was burgled last summer (it was not Werritty) and why did the Tory party tell reporters that the MP had been “alone in the flat“?