14/10/2011 Newsnight

After the worst week of his political life, Liam Fox decided he

had to go as he admits blurring personal interests and government

activities. We have new revelations about his friend Adam Werritty's

business links. The Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy with the Tory

MP who says Dr Fox should not have quit. General Sir Mike Jackson will

discuss the effect of having six defence secretaries in six years.

At a time of big military cuts and two major conflict, we'll examine

Liam Fox's legacy at the MoD. Also tonight, how will the Tory right

react to losing one of their favourite sons and we'll discuss

where this leaves the Coalition and David Cameron.

Good evening. There's an old saying among military medics about being

wounded in combat, if it looks bad, it is bad. The day by day

revelations about Liam Fox and his friendship with Adam Werritty

looked increasingly bad throughout the past week and that meant they

were bad. Today Dr Fox decided he'd had enough and quit his job to be

taken now by Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary. We'll get to

the long-term political and military implications in a moment,

but first, David Grossman is here with Higgs insights into what

happened today and why. It looked increasingly inevitable,

didn't it? I think that's a fair assessment. This has been one of

the more inevitable resignations from the Cabinet in modern times,

ever since the bare facts of this were known. I think all that was

really delaying the departure was David Cameron's understandable

reluctance to lose a Defence Secretary at a time of war and take

the inevitable political hit that comes from losing any Cabinet

minister. But what happened day after day has been that Liam Fox's

story, or his account of what was going on has simply unravelled. At

the beginning we were told these 41 meetings with Adam Werritty who

had's been his bestman were simply friends getting together to chew

over stuff. Now, over the days, a more complex picture has emerged.

Today one of the donors who provided money for Adam Werritty

says that it was Liam Fox who solicited those donations. The

Cabinet secretary is looking at this matter and is about to report.

I understand that one of the factors that tipped Liam Fox

towards resignation is the knowledge that that assessment by

the Cabinet secretary was going to be very critical. At the moment,

when he resigned it was his decision but he knew it wasn't

going to be his decision for much longer.

There aren't many more important jobs in government, political

oversight of the Armed Forces, defending the realm. What Liam Fox

couldn't survive, though, was the impression that he was also at the

same time running a parallel department.

REPORTER: Is sorry enough? It's not like he didn't do his best to hang

on, he even apologised. I accept that mistakes were made and I

should not have allowed the impression of wrong-doing to arise.

I'm very sorry for that. When that didn't work, well, he

apologised again. I am sorry for this, I have apologised to the

Prime Minister, to the public and at the first opportunity available

to the House. Today there was no sign of the Defence Secretary, just

a whole load of rumours and then, I think if you look back at the

events of the week, I think he's reached the right decision. I'm

reluctant in that conclusion because I think he'll be a big loss

to the MoD but when the story becomes as persistent as it has

become, it does become a real distraction for the department

concerned. I agree with his analysis that it was probably

better for him to step aside and avoid disrupting the very important

work of the Ministry of Defence and our Armed Forces. Outside the MoD

statues of heroes, Monty, of course, who did for the Desert Fox.

What did for the Liam Fox? Forget all those complicated floep charts

showing money going from that individual to that organisation, or

that meeting and that obscure foreign location. What really did

for him was the perception that even as Secretary of State for

Defence, even in charge of the MoD here, he was, at the same time,

running a sort of freelance policy operation beyond the control of the

Government. The facts emerged slowly. The

bestman at Dr Fox's wedding, Adam Werritty, we found out visited him

at his office 22 times and on overseas visits 19 times, all since

the last general election. Why? And who was paying? It appears

it was political donors seeking to influence policy. Ministers have

always had as it were groups of people who work for them on the

side, people they mix with in Parliament, groups that they kept

in touch with. That's perfectly acceptable if these things are open

and they're understood. It's the gaining private advantage through

public office of the minister that is wrong. It is deeply suspicious.

Even if nothing wrong was happening, ie, no money was being made, no

secrets were being given away, the rules are pretty clear. Just the

perception of wrong-doing is wrong because it's against the public

interest. Mr Werritty had been using a business card describing

himself as an advisor, but crucially, he didn't have any

official status. He did, though, arrange meetings, a meeting with

the defence contractor at this Dubai hotel, Liam Fox was there but

there was no civil servant present much

There was also a meeting with the Sri Lankan President, again Adam

Werritty was there, but no civil servant. The Cabinet secretary Gus

O'Donnell is conducting an investigation. Labour says that

investigation must now be widened. It will not be good enough just to

say he's resign and it's not going any further. It's quite

embarrassing for David Cameron because some of the same

individuals who funded Adam Werritty's activities are quite

major donors to David Cameron's campaigns as well in the

Conservative Party. But Liam Fox is not without friends in his own

party. They point to his successes, recently in Britain's involvement

in Libya. It was this support that was one of

the factors in meaning that David Cameron did not wish to be seen to

be forcing him out prematurely. Very upset for him, a man of great

honour and integrity. But also very angry at the media witch-hunt that

has pursued him and ultimately played a very important part in

forcing him out of office. I met with Liam a few nights ago for a

drink. I could see the hurt, I think, that he was feeling. He has

obviously put his party and his government ahead of his own

interests. We have lost an incredibly efficient, hard-working

Secretary of State for Defence. David Cameron, too, paid tribute to

his departing minister. I quite understood why Liam Fox has decided

to resign. Obviously I'm sorry to see him go because obviously he did

a good job at the Ministry of Defence, clearing up the mess left

by the last government and giving good leadership to that department,

particularly while we've been in action in Libya and also, of course,

in Afghanistan as well. New Defence Secretary is Philip Hammond. He

moves from transport. That personnel change, the Government

would like to mark the end of this matter. There are, though, too many

unanswered questions still hanging around about Liam Fox and his

bestman for that to be the case. With me now our correspondent

Richard Watson who spent the week investigating the many questions

raised by the friendship of Dr Fox and Adam Werritty. Richard, you

learnt some new information today, did you not? Yeah, I think the most

damaging material to come out really concerns this, not for

profit company funded by donors who supported Liam Fox's political

ideology on the right. That seems to be the vehicle by which Adam

Werritty was funding his five-star lifestyle around the world.

Crucially one of these big donors came out tonight and confirmed that

Liam Fox approached him, claimed he approached him after the election

for funding and I think that raises some very big questions indeed. The

way this story emerged today is also instructive. At 2pm I received

a phone call from a source saying that Pargav's sole director had

been suspended from his job with a a major hedge fund company run by a

man called Michael Hindusy and he has been a big donor to the

Conservative Party as well. That point the writer was on the wall,

if you have a big donor to the Conservative Party pulling out the

draw bridge, creating clear water between him and this story, the

inevitable would follow and two hours later he resigned.

uncovered some new information about what might have been going on

on that trip to Sri Lanka which was after that very brutal civil war in

the country? The Sri Lankan story, I think is quite Jermaine to this,

central to this, what I've been told by a very well pleased source

is that within the last three to four months there were serious

concerns expressed by some Foreign Office officials here in London

that Adam Werritty was pursuing a kind of argument that went along

the following lines - now the civil war is over it's time to rebuild

relationship with Sri Lanka, fair enough, but those contracts he

suggested would flow would include some kind of defence-related

material, highly controversial. The same source told me at that a

second set of officials, this time in the Department for International

Development had similar concerns recently as well. They were saying

that Mr Werritty was pursuing a similar argument saying Britain

should be in the business of big construction contracts to Sri Lanka

and what about including defence- related contracts as a kind of

added incentive to make Britain very competitive indeed. Where does

it leave us? I suppose ultimately in summary it has been a week of

drip, drip in evidence and allegations. It proved too much in

the end but of course there could still be quite a lot to come out.

We have the official inquiry next week. Thank you very much.

We wanted to speak to Dr Fox tonight or any member of the

Government, we were told that no- one was available. But with us now,

the Conservative MP and friend of Dr Fox, Peter Bone and the Shadow

Defence Secretary Jim Murphy. Mr Bone, given all that, and given

that he was a daily distrabg in the past week, he had -- distraction in

the past week, he had to absolutely go? I don't think so. I think it

would be in the national interest for Dr Fox to remain. There were

allegations and tittle-tattle but there was no suggestion he breached

national security, no suggestion that there was any corruption on

the part of Dr Fox. Now, he put, of course, the country first rather

than his personal career and resign because, because the media was in

such a frenzy. Hold on, though, the media will do what the media will

do, but this was somebody who was told by Number 10 that could you

hang on, of course, and wait for Gus O'Donnell's report next week.

The Labour Party, I'm sure Jim Murphy will confirm it, Jim Murphy

wasn't saying you could resign, he could have held on. He must have

realised he did something wrong. Only the BBC could say that.

said it today. Why not accept the obvious. That he resigned because

he did something wrong? Absolutely not. He resigned because he did

something right? Yes, he put the country first. Because of the

frenzy that you and others have built up, he was distracting from

the job and he decided to go. I think that was typical of Liam.

Murphy, the case is closed, the man has gone, it's over. The case

hasn't closed. We actually don't know why Liam resigned today. We

can speculate. He put the country first. We know that's not the case.

Peter has to say it and that's fine. I happen to believe that. Sorry,

Peter, that's unkind for me to say you were doing your job then.

Believe you to be wrong, but. I never called for his resignation. I

had say. Why not? I think too often opposition politicians whether when

Labour was in power and the Tories did it or when Tories are in power

Labour perhaps in the past have done it, in a sense, if you throw

about demands for resignations like confetti, it's devalued as a

currency. I think Liam, like every politician, is entitled to a fair

hearing, there was an inquiry, it should have run its course but

unfortunately for Liam, as the evidence has emerged Liam has

decided he can't go on. He'd become a distraction, I'm suggesting to

you this is now over. What more do you want to know? Two things, Liam

did break the rules, Government has rules and ministers have standards.

He's paid a high price. Liam fell below his own standards and broke

the Government's rules in terms of the code of conduct of the the

second thing here is we need to find out whags this source of

money? What is the flow of money -- what is this sorgs of money? Liam

treated Adam Werritty as a good friend, Adam Werritty seemed to

treat Liam Fox as some sort of franchise to make money from. We

need to know as part of the inquiry, where's the money? Why has Liam

decided. Let's carry out the investigation and if need be

broaden the investigation further. Do you agree with that? I think we

have to see what the report says. I agree with Jim that he looked

embarrassed in the House of Commons earlier this week when behind him

Labour backbenchers were baying for Liam Fox's blood. He's a good guy,

Jim, he was reluctantly pushing the party line but you could see his

heart wasn't in. What did you make of the innuendos and some would say

smears this week? That's what it was all about. It was like reading

a soap op radio, wasn't it. It was -- opera, wasn't it. Soap operas

decide whether you get rid of a minister or not. In this case I

think there is a national interest involved. I would like Jim to tell

me, does he think it's in the national interest, think of our men

abroad, fighting in Libya and Afghanistan, that Liam Fox has left.

I've always said I would rather be discussing and debateing the

Government's defence policy rather than the Government's Defence

Minister. Neither Peter nor I created this crisis and neither did

the BBC, Liam Fox created this crisis by having such a close

professional relationship in such a murky business where it emerges

this evening that Liam appears to have the solicited donations for an

organisation that Mr Werritty worked for, that was then providing

with advice and support. This is entirely of Liam's making, but he's

done the right thing. Peter shouldn't blame the press. The res

are doing their job. A narrow point, are you worried about the changing

composition of the Government, that the raoeult, as it were, somewhat

under represented.? Another context of this, I'm from the right of the

party. I didn't think we were very well represented in the Cabinet.

Now I think we're grossly underrepresented. I think what's

going to happen in the next few weeks or months, the inevitable re-

shuffle has to occur and the balance in the Cabinet has to to be

put right. We need to have people in the Cabinet who represent the

Conservative Party. We have five Liberals representing the Liberal

Democrats. I think the most concerned person this evening isn't

people, it will be Chris Huhne, because the inLib Dems sat their

silently and defended the Defence Secretary because they knew if they

took out the Defence Secretary Peter and others would respond by

retaliateing against Chris Huhne. It was more like a protection

racket than a Coalition Government. You said you would like a debate

about the future of defence in this country. The big debate, but six

defence secretaries in six years four of them Labour, one after the

other, they didn't last very long. You are, it is allege by Mr Fox and

others, Dr Fox and others, partly responsible for the chaos at the

MoD. That's a wider debate and we can discuss that this evening if

you wish. But the fact is, the Government had a defence review

that Liam oversaw, that he thought was the right thing to do for the

country. But I think it was a short-term measure driven by the

deficit reduction plan going too deeply. We have an island nation

with a -- with an aircraft-carrier that will have a holiday from

aircraft. Those sorts of decisions are peculiar, I hope the new man in

the job takes a fresh look at some of these decisions so they make

sense. Thank you both. There are never easy times nowadays

for the British military but Dr Fox's resignation comes during a

war in Afghanistan, of course, conflict in Libya and a profound

reorganisation as we've just been hearing and budget cuts at the MoD.

The forces are still coming to taoerpls with the Strategic Defence

and Security Review which Dr Fox oversaw. He fought battles against

the Treasury and Downing Street on the cuts and awkwardly for the

Coalition his concerns became public. In the end he had to accept

sweeping job cuts in all three services, the axing of Harrier

jumpjets, the Navy's flagship HMS Ark Royal and planned Nimrod spy

planes. On the battlefield or above it, Libya has revealed gaps in what

British forces can actually do nowadays. After ten years in

Afghanistan no-one thinks that the war there is anywhere near being

won, whatever that might mean. His successor, Philip Hammond, the

sixth Defence Secretary in six years somehow has to maintain

motheral, support troops who are risking their lives and keep going

with cuts and reforms. With me is our defence editor, Mark

Urban, will he be thought of, leaving what we've been talking

about aside, will he be thought of as a good Defence Secretary? There

are many people in Whitehall who say precisely that, he came into

the MoD at an extremely difficult time, a very overspent organisation,

an organisation where the political contradictions within the Labour

Party about Iraq, Afghanistan, had led to such a light political touch

on the tiller that it was pretty much rudderless, many people

thought the service chiefs were having things far too much their

own way, loading in projects into the programme you unsustainable. It

needed a big character to turn it all around, to get the Strategic

Defence and Security Review in, and many people feel that Liam Fox was

precisely that man and that he had the force and personality to do so

and therefore this is a considerable loss. We've heard

Peter Bone and many of his other friends coming out today talking

about him but he made some enemies, too. Precisely for those same

reasons the force of character, the fact that he knew his own mind on

many of these key issues. He came in there, for example, saying "we

will get rid of one major combat aircraft type in the RAF", a thing

that cascaded down into this decision to get rid of the Harriers

eventually. He knew his mind on that issue. He did upset people. It

was precisely part of his strategy to get the military back on the

leash that upset many people. Then a few months ago, for example, when

he announced that the powers of the service chiefs were being trimmed.

He said in the House of Commons they don't need to be so involved

in strategy, almost implying it was a waste of their time, they

shouldn't be worried about this. One service chief described that

remark to me as "disgusting". He certainly had many enemies,

particularly within the senior ranks of the military. People who

would not be, sorry to see him ago and, of course, the MoD is in the

process of making those, some of those war fighters from Libya and

Afghanistan redundant, which is also creating bitterness. Briefly,

Philip Hammond takes over, widely regarded as a safe pair of hands, a

safe bet. What are the biggest challenges he faces given that

those difficult decisions have been taken? The key operational

challenge is obviously managing the exit from Afghanistan, but the

broader key challenge is the programme once again, already so

soon after that defence review there are many people who say, no,

the same old problems are going on, the thing is overset with too many

projects, too many overspends. There will have to be further

substantial cuts in the forces and Mr Hammond will need to get his

head round that issue. Thank you very much. Also with us, the former

head of the army Sir Mike Jackson. Leaving aside the details of what

went on, when you have the head of the MoD distracted by something as

he has been every day this week, how difficult is it for the

organisation to know exactly where it's heading? It's obviously a

distraction. The good thing perhaps is that it didn't last very long,

although it may seem long. It's good that it's over? It's good that

it's over. One way or the other. But we now know.

But echoing what's just been said, it's a very complex canvas at the

moment. We have a war still to be won in Afghanistan, albeit with an

end date, we shall see. We have an operation to conclude in Libya, to

say nothing of the unexpected, we can leave that. There's a very

complex programme of restructuring, reforming the MoD itself, this is

quite a challenge. I hope, I hope you're wrong when you say that

we're still that much out of kilter as between programme and budget.

Philip Hammond is a quick studyer, he spent a lot of time thinking

about the Treasury matters, he went to transport and now he's at the

MoD. How difficult is it for somebody, an outsider to get their

head round the complexities of everything from procurement to

looking after men and women's lives. I think it takes really quite a

long time. There's a sense that up to a year is required before you

really understand how the machine works, what motivates people. The

whole acquisition process which has been the Achilles heel, if you like,

of defence for so long, which, to give Dr Fox credit, he was getting

a grip on, amongst other things. But we are where we are. What I

think the Armed Forces look for is now continuity. They would hope the

big decisions have been taken and it's now a question of making sure

they get implemented. It was trgt the way you said that, that it

could -- interesting that you said that, that it could take up to a

year, even for a bright person to take charge of this. If we had six

people in six years, that suspects no-one has quite got a grip on it

for many years? I think it's a very poor reflection somehow on, I don't

know, maybe the political importance given to defence. This

is not a party political point because most of that churn was in

the last government. That's where we have been, about one a year on

average. The Armed Forces themselves could be forgiven for

thinking that they don't matter that much. I'm sure that's not the

case but it can give that impression, this churn. How, then,

important is it for Philip Hammond not only to raise himself to the

challenges we've been talking about but stays for quite sometime?

Leaving personality, names apart, whoever it was, I very much hope we

now have a Defence Secretary who will be in post until the next

election. To give that continuity. Do you think that Liam Fox should

have gone because he was a distraction? He chose to go. I

don't think it's for me to comment as a retired soldier on the

politics of it. I don't know what was in his mind or whatever. He's

chosen to go and that's that, we are where we are. Does any of this

have an impact on the soldiers on ground which is obviously your

particular concern? Yes, I think to a private soldier in Afghanistan

the name and the personality of the Secretary of State may just be part,

just on his radar screen but I don't think it's going to be much

of his thinking day. What he looks for is good direction from the top

downwards and a constandcy of direction. I go back to my

continuity point. Thank you very much, General Sir Mike Jackson.

It's one of the cliches of politics that all political parties are

coalitions but it's true that Liam Fox who once harboured ambitions to

be Tory leader was once seen to be the emblematic figure of the right.

Today we've been hearing the right has never been weaker in the Tory

Cabinet than it is now. Shaun Ley looks back at Liam Fox's career and

what he represented. Liam Fox is that increasingly rare

beast at the top of the Conservative Party, no Cameron-

style social liberal, he signalled that he's an unreconstructed

Thatcherite by making the lady herself star-turn at his 50th

birthday party. From the start of his Parliamentary career in 1992,

he was prepared to defy the leadership, challenging John

Major's delicate party balancing act over Europe by publicly

pledging his opposition to scrapping the pound. In any cunning

fight over the EU he could yet become a rallying point for

hardline sceptics. The EU is locked in the past. We need an agenda for

the 21st century. We need to break away from the whole outdated

concept of ever closer union much He was ambitious, in opposition he

flourished, his convivial style making him an ideal party chairman

to rally demoralised party troops. For Liam Fox this could never be

the nasty party and its past was nothing to be ashamed of. There is

no such thing as government money, there is only tax-payers' money,

remember that one. You cannot go on squeezing wealth

creators to finance an ever hungrier government machine. David

Cameron put him in charge of health, but Dr Fox enthused about an

insurance-based NHS, hardly helpful to the new leader's attempts to

decontaminate the Tory brand. Defence fitted his traditional Tory

instincts but in taking on the military top brass he impressed

Number 10 with his appetite for reform. Less welcome was an

interview calling Afghanistan a broken 13th century country and

leaks showing him valiantly fighting the Treasury over defence

cuts. Who leaked and why was never established.

Liked but never entirely trusted, a reputation Liam Fox takes with him

to the backbenches, one way may yet give David Cameron cause to be

nervous. Shaun Ley with that report. Joining

me to discuss the Fox resignation and what means, Fraser Nelson the

editor of the Spectator and Allegra Stratton, political correspondent

with the Guardian. Fraser, you know Liam Fox, you've heard the various

arguments put about today, do you think this was a good man hounded

out by the press or do you think it was someone who made fundamental

misjudgments? I think it was a good man who made fundamental

misjudgments. Throughout all of this nobody is saying he was a bad

Defence Secretary, politicians never resign because they did the

job wrong it's always something else. I think he was right to think

this couldn't go on. You just feel in your bones as a politician that

this story is not going to go away. I suspect with him he probably

could have hung on, David Cameron probably would have backed him but

he decided that the critical mass of bad news stories was such that

it was time to walk the plank. Allegra, he was pretty naive,

wasn't he? Indeed, he was. Also, we've been playing this game in the

office of trying to imagine that he was the relationship with Werritty

if she had been a woman and would we have necessarily hung back from

that and not interrogated that relationship and not said, hold on

a second this is completely normal. There was naivety, he does have

this kind of boyish charm, though. That is a part of his thing, that

he's kinda, swbsb from his constituency earlier was talking

about him having Blair-like qualities. Is that a compliment or

not? From him he said it was a compliment, a kind of sparkle in

his eyes? He loves Conservatives. When he was party chairman he would

talk to the activists in their 50s and 60s and wee love talking to

them and it was reciprocated. That's why the party liked him.

They could tell that he was a Conservative to his heart. Was part

of it, though, talking with Peter Bone there, there was innuendos

about him and smears which nobody quite put their finger on but it

contributed to the '80s fear around him? He's always had this

atmosphere around him. He is age blind as a politician, friends in

their 70s, and 20s, it doesn't matter to him. That's odd for a

politician. The same thing about social status. Normally when a

politician has a bestman it's a political appointment, somebody

who's up there in stature, he doesn't care for any of that. He's

saying, look here's my best mate, sure he's 16 years younger, but I

don't care. Odd for a politician but normal for a person. We're not

dealing with something with subjectivity within it completely

what, we've had in the last 24 hours, the critical thing and why

we believe Gus O'Donnell was going to be quite critical. I saw people

from Downing Street on Thursday night, last night, when those first

editions were dropping, The Times and frbg T in particular which were

beginning to draw the link between some of this money and influence in

defence contracts -- FT -- at that toeupbt, you have the the

Ministerial Code of Conduct, the wrong-doing and perception of

wrong-doing. It was beginning to look like you have both those

things. Where does this leave the party, there are those on the right

saying they're being edged out and they're much more important in the

country, the Conservative Party in the country than they are in the

Cabinet? Certainly the Conservative Party will see in Liam Fox an

unashamed Conservative champion. But I don't think anybody can claim

that David Cameron was using this to get rid of a nasty right-winger.

But even so, they might say, David Davis is in the backbenches, John

Redwood is in the backbenches, talented people but none inside

Number 10? Yes, I have a feeling they won't. It remains to be seen

but it's not as if Philip Hammond is a kind of socialist in a suit. I

don't think that the political balance of the Government has

changed much. Bear in mind you had a speech from the Chancellor last

week at party conference where George Osborne was very clear about,

for instance, environmentalism, something that the right of the

party were at one stage worried that the leadership didn't reflect.

Now they are reflecting. We're seeing the dynamic of the Coalition

and we will see in the years to come it will increasingly, the

Tories will increasingly creep right purely as a sort of kind of

uncoupling at the head of the next election. Do you think then, the

implication was that, you're saying, Cameron handled it well. What the

about the re-shuffle, two women have been promoted with this?

That's right. David Cameron is in big trouble with women right now

and needs to make up and promote them. I don't think he promoted

Justine Greening for tokenistic reasons, she's an incredibly sharp

MP. I think the appointment of Philip Hammond in defence is

interesting. He isn't a guy who wakes up in the morning and puts on

Union Jack cuff links like Liam Fox did. He's a kind of Alastair

Darling figure, an accountant, that's his tkhaoepber, like a human

fire extinct wisher, sent there to calm this department -- demeanour.

Liam Fox did the hard stuff. He took the knocks, now the plan needs

to be implemented. Can I just make one observation about this re-

shuffle, not about women, which is it's qaoeult a George Osborne re-

shuffle, Philip Hammond was close to him. Justine, obviously, she's

the fifth member in the Treasury and now she's suddenly gone up to

being top of the Department for Transport, quite a meteoric rise,

she's good but it's traoebgs Lib Dem quick and now PPS to Osbourne

and he's somebody who has talked about Europe having to break up.

There are interesting sub stories. Do either of you think the story is

over? I very much doubt the Sunday papers won't have anything to say

about this. There are still unanswered questions about who was

funding Adam Werritty and why. I think when the report comes out on

Monday, I think Liam Fox will personally be in the clear. Indeed,

it's not over for Fox but it's probably over in terms of the

implications at the top of government. Thank you very much.

David grossman is here with a look at some of tomorrow's front pages

much You won't be surprised to hear they

all lead on the resignation of the Defence Secretary. The front page

of the Guardian "No more denials, fox quits." Co-written by one

Allegra Stratton whose sources have told her Werritty's evidence had

not impressed O'Donnell and the Cabinet secretary was concluded

that Fox had repeatedly broken the Ministerial Code. Rattling thrao.

Secret cash trail that meant Fox had to go. This was the crucial

development today, this donor saying Fox was solicting the

donations for Werritty. Going on the next paper we have

there, the FT "Werritty revelations claim Fox." That's those same

revelations and defenceless Liam Fox in the Independent.

The Times again "Hunted Fox." Final lit the Mirror, "Another fine

mess." Where they link Liam Fox and Oliver Letwin with his bins.

Thank you all very much. Now, that's all for Newsnight

tonight. Martha is up next with the review looking ahead to next week's

Man Booker Prize. Tomorrow Wales play France, the red dragon will be

flying above Downing Street and as they're the last home nation in the