British Defense Secretary Liam Fox resigns

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REPORTING FROM LONDON -- After days of resisting opposition calls to resign, Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, has surrendered to the clamor to quit over his controversial relationship with a businessman who styled himself as a ministerial advisor.

Fox’s friendship with Adam Werrity had been under scrutiny since reports emerged that he had accompanied the defense secretary on 18 overseas visits, despite holding no official post. Critics have demanded to know who paid for Werrity’s travel.

The results of an official inquiry are expected next week, but several recent British media reports tied Werrity’s spending to donations from an array of foreign and British individuals and companies.

“I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred,” Fox said Friday in a resignation letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.

The resignation of a senior Cabinet minister is a blow to Cameron’s government, but also removes from office a politician from the Conservative party’s right-wing who had once been viewed as an internal rival to the prime minister.

Cameron praised Fox for the “superb job” he had done, overseeing “fundamental changes in the Ministry of Defense and in our Armed Forces,” and for his role in the Libyan campaign “to stop people being massacred by the Kadafi regime and instead win their freedom.”

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-- Janet Stobart