Cameron to receive report on Fox

The prime minister will receive an interim report later into the working relationship between Defence Secretary Liam Fox and his friend Adam Werritty.On Sunday Mr Fox denied any wrongdoing but admitted making mistakes and apologised to David Cameron.Mr Fox, who set up the Ministry of Defence inquiry into his conduct, will make a statement to MPs later.Mr Werritty, 34, who has no government role or national security clearance, sat in on several meetings with Mr Fox.The 34-year-old, who was Mr Fox's best man in 2005 and a former flatmate, also used to carry cards describing himself as an adviser to the defence secretary.In his statement, Mr Fox admitted it had been "a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend".Mr Fox said that at no stage had he or his department provided classified information or briefings to Mr Werritty, who visited him a number of times at the MoD, or assisted with his commercial work in the defence industry - "let alone benefit personally from this work"."Nevertheless, I do accept that given Mr Werritty's defence-related business interests, my frequent contacts with him may have given an impression of wrongdoing, and may also have given third parties the misleading impression that Mr Werritty was an official adviser rather than simply a friend," he said.BBC political correspondent Robin Brant said the prime minister had to make a decision about Mr Fox's future based on the facts put before him by the most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence."A key consideration will also be if his defence secretary is simply too damaged to go on."Labour MP Thomas Doherty, who is on the Commons defence select committee, said Mr Fox had important questions to answer but he did not believe his conduct had become a resigning matter yet.Mr Doherty asked: "At these meetings at which Mr Werritty was present, was it clear to all parties in the room what status Mr Werritty had?"For example, when he met with the Sri Lankan president, did the Sri Lankan government understand what exactly was the status of Mr Werritty? [Liam Fox] has made a serious mistake, but I don't necessarily think yet it is fatal."Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said Mr Fox's response on Sunday had been "an extremely sensible thing for a very capable Secretary of State for Defence to do".But he added: "I just wish he hadn't got himself into this position in the first place, because the trouble is of course that when this sort of affair starts to roll, it doesn't go away quickly."We are in a number of extraordinarily difficult positions with our armed forces at the moment, and we need a Secretary of State for Defence who is capable and who is undistracted from his job."A series of newspaper revelations over the weekend have increased the pressure on Mr Fox since he set up the inquiry on Friday:On the Dubai meeting, which was said to have been brokered by Mr Werritty, the defence secretary said it had been "wrong to meet with a commercial supplier without the presence of an official"."I have apologised to the prime minister and agreed with my permanent secretary to put in place new procedures to ensure that this does not happen again," he said.He pledged to answer "all questions" in the House of Commons.