Fox friends turn on "Walter Mitty" Werritty

Here's a key development in the Fox furore.

Friends of the Defence Secretary are criticising Adam Werritty in quite strong terms. Here's what they are saying.

"It is clear that Werritty was masquerading as something he was not. He was hanging around and popping up in places, trying to be part of a group. This guy was clearly a Walter Mitty figure."

Mitty was the tragi-comic fictional character created by James Thurber, a dreamer who indulged in heroic fantasy to escape his humdrum life.  Unconsciously, the Fox friend is echgoing the jibe used by one of Tony Blair's former aides against the late weapons expert David Kelly.

Here's another quote, in answer to the question whether Fox was severing relations with Werritty.

"It's fair to say that he [Fox] was naive about Adam Adam did arrive in certain places and took advantage of his friendship with Liam. It will be a very different friendship in future."

I understand that these quotes reflect Dr Fox's position and, therefore, reflects what he is telling Sir Gus O'Donnell's inquiry.

There's something I noticed on the BBC interview with Harvey Boulter yesterday, by the way. Boulter, despite trying to knife Fox, admitted it is true that he met Werritty entirely by accident in a restaurant in Dubai, and that they then set up the talks with Fox. “It was coincidental that I bumped into him in a restaurant in Dubai.” The idea of such an accidental meeting was jeered in the Commons but it turns out to be completely true. Boulter had given the impression to several newspapers that the meeting was agreed ahead of Fox's arrival - but he now clarifies that he had asked for one long before, which is not the same thing at all.

Here's a link to our exclusive news story in tonight's Evening Standard.

By the way, I've emailed and left messages for Mr Werritty over several days, asking him to give his account of the story but he has not yet responded. I hope he will do so.

 

 

Joe Murphy