He is a former flatmate of Fox and was best man at his wedding in 2005. Werritty and Fox were joint investors in the healthcare consultancy firm UK Health, and Werritty was appointed by Fox as the chief executive of the now disbanded charity The Atlantic Bridge. Werritty accompanied Fox on foreign business trips to Sri Lanka and Dubai in 2011, Israel in 2009, and in 2007, when Fox was then shadow Defence Secretary, they both attended a meeting with the Gulf Research Centre. The uncertain nature of Werritty's business relationship with Fox led to an investigation by the MoD's Permanent Secretary, Ursula Brennan.
Ongoing Investigation
Adam Werritty is currently being investigated by senior civil servants led by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell. The Prime Minister David Cameron asked for an interim report of the MOD internal inquiry by 10 October 2011. The Prime Minister will make a decision on Liam Fox's future until he sees the final report due on 21 October 2011.
Personal life
Werritty lives near Vauxhall Bridge, close to Parliament. His father Alan Werritty, born 1944 or 1945 [tbc], is a retired geography professor at the University of Dundee who lives with his wife Irene in St Andrews, Fife.
Adam Werritty's friendship with Liam Fox began in the late 1990s, when Fox was an Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Scotland & Constitutional Affairs and when Werritty was studying public policy at Edinburgh University. They had a shared interest in politics and the United States.
After graduating with 2:2, Werritty left Scotland to work for the healthcare company, PPP. He lived in several places in London and stayed rent-free between 2002 and 2003 in Fox's flat in Southwark near Tower Bridge. Werritty was Fox's best man at his wedding in 2005.
Ties to Liam Fox
Werritty has attracted attention for his close personal and business ties to Liam Fox. He lived in Fox's apartment in Southwark, London, during 2002 and 2003 and was best man at his wedding 2005. The property in which Werrity stayed rent free was mortgaged at £1400 per month and covered by Fox's Additional Costs Allowance (ACA), part of his MP's expenses. In 2011, Werritty stayed with Fox at a villa in Spain during an August holiday break at the climax of the 2011 Libyan civil war.
Werritty used business cards that characterised him as an "advisor to the Rt Hon Dr Fox MP" despite being warned not to do so. Werritty has also made visits to the defence secretary at the MoD's HQ in Whitehall on 14 occasions in 16 months which led the Labour Party to request an inquiry into a possible national security breach. Werritty, in his capacity as adviser to Fox, was able to arrange access to the minister for private sector companies on matters where they could both see commercial gains, despite denials of any role as an advisor.
Advisory role
In April 2007 and Werritty and Fox attended an official meeting with the Gulf Research Centre, an independently run body that conducts research on issues concerning the Middle East issues. The pair also attended an Israeli security conference centred on relations with Palestine and that took place in Herzliya in 2009. Werritty is listed in conference proceedings as an adviser to Fox.
In June 2011 Werritty organised a business meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai. The meeting was attended by Werritty, Fox, the British private equity boss and CEO of the Porton Group Harvey Boulter, and two other Dubai-based businessmen.Werritty had earlier been contacted by a lobbying firm known as Tetra Strategy, whom Boulter had hired at a rate of £10,000 per month, in an attempt to have Fox intervene in a Porton Group legal dispute that indirectly involved the MoD. Tetra are believed to have begun working towards arranging a meeting with Werritty or Fox as early as the 25th March 2011.
It was Werritty's initial meeting with Boulter in April 2011 that led to discussions with Fox regarding the sale of a product called Cellcrypt. The forty five minute Dubai meeting in June 2011 was primarily about the possible sale of the voice encryption software to the British MoD. Boulter has claimed that the matter of a legal battle between Porton Group and 3M concerning Acolyte, a EU regulatory approved rapid detection technology for MRSA, and a deal worth forty one million pounds, was allocated no more than five to ten minutes at the end of the meeting.According to the Guardian details relating to the nature of the visit and the business matters discussed suggest that it was "highly irregular." The MoD has stated that there were no officials present at the meeting but that one of the attendees claims to have received the impression that all of those in attendance had been security cleared. But, Werritty did not have such clearance.
Owing to the nature of his close relationship with Mr. Fox, questions have been raised about the appropriateness of Werritty's accompanying Fox on government trips abroad. Fox had previously claimed that Werritty had never joined him on such trips but The Guardian reported on October 10, 2011 that the "self-styled adviser" met senior Sri Lankan ministers on an official visit in summer 2011. The Sri Lankan trip was originally scheduled for December 2010 but a disagreement with the foreign secretary, William Hague, saw the visit changed to July despite allegations that the Sri Lankan government supported paramilitary groups in defeating the Tamil Tigers.
The Atlantic Bridge
Werritty was also responsible for operating a charity known as The Atlantic Bridge out of Fox's office at tax payers' expense. The rightwing charity works in conjunction with a major US business lobby group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a major US lobbying organisation for corporations such as Philip Morris, Texaco and Mc Donalds. According to US charity records Werritty is listed as the UK executive director with an address corresponding to Fox's former room at the House of Commons. He operated the organisation from Fox's room, No. 341 in the MPs' block at Portcullis House, and it served as the charity's official headquarters. The Guardian reported that between 2007 and 2010, Werritty's income as chief executive of The Atlantic Bridge was in excess of £90,000. The charity was established by Fox to help US/UK relations and serve as a reminder of the Reagan-Thatcher era and Werritty was given a lead role. The charity also functioned as a counterpart to the Alec-founded Atlantic Bridge Group, a sister organisation in America. Following criticism by regulators that the charity was too politically oriented to be eligible for charitable status, the UK wing disbanded in September 2011.
The Atlantic Bridge US group now dissociates itself from its former UK colleagues.
1 comment:
the man in that photo is not Werrity
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