Crunch time for Fox

“I don’t believe that wrongdoing did occur”, said Liam Fox in his apology yesterday. With today’s front pages dripping with accusations, Fox has some work to do to substatiate that claim.

The Guardian reveals that “Political lobbyists were paid thousands of pounds to help a Dubai-based businessman arrange a secretive meeting with Liam Fox”:

“an invoice, seen by the Guardian, shows that Boulter enlisted the services of a lobbying firm to help him skip layers of bureaucracy and meet Fox for an urgent meeting on the 41st floor of the hotel. The invoice shows Boulter paid Tetra Strategy £10,000 for “project fees”. It is understood that the fees covered fixing up media interviews and political lobbying. Emails seen by the Guardian show the boss of Tetra, Lee Petar, had been working to arrange a meeting between Boulter and Fox or Werritty since 25 March. This throws further doubt on Fox’s claim that the controversial encounter took place after a chance meeting between Werritty and Boulter over dinner in Dubai in April.”