Exclusive – Liam Fox turns down job as Foreign Office minister

I can confirm that Liam Fox was offered Minister of State at the Foreign Office with responsibility for India, China and Latin America. He politely declined the Prime Minister’s idea, even when it was later sweetened with the offer of a place in the National Security Council. Fox, a former party chairman and defence secretary, had been tipped for a comeback and foreign policy is one his great loves (he recently wrote a book, Rising Tides, about the various risks the world faces). So why turn it down? My guess is that he saw Cameron’s offer as a means of plonking him on a slow boat to China in the last 12 months before an election. Fox has plenty to say – on the need for a more ambitious economic policy, the Russian threat and the need for European reform. He’s served more time on the frontbenches than almost anyone who has worked for Cameron, and is able to make these points without the platform of a job title.