It’s not over yet.

We’ve not seen the full extent of the Cabinet Office report into the strange and wonderful world of Dr Liam Fox. We don’t know yet what conclusions the Cabinet Secretary will or will arrive at, but we can guess it will not be good.
However there are still questions that Dr Fox will have to answer about the legitimacy of his ‘arrangment’ with Mr Werritty.

For instance, was Mr Werritty’s funding declarable under the Political Parties act? If a politician receives a donation of more than £500 it is declarable under the law. This includes donations in kind. If Mr Werritty was employed by a front company but provided ‘services’ to Dr Fox then was this or was this not a donation in kind?

If Dr Fox personally solicited donations, as Jon Moulton’s statement alleges, toward Mr Werritty’s employment costs and then Mr Werritty travelled round the world holding meetings with and, allegedly, on behalf of Dr Fox who had co-ordinated his travel with this man’s how exactly is this not employing Mr Werritty? If this is found to be the case, did then what of the accuracy of the statement made by Dr Fox to Parliament?

How serious a breach of Ministerial conduct was it? This was hardly a technicality. Here we had some shadow advisor, off the Government payroll, funded in secret by Who the Hell Knows running round Ollie North style pursuing a policy agenda sanctioned by neither the electorate nor the Government of the day without any accountability. It was part of what the likes of the CIA used to call ‘plausible denyability’. This is what many would call a rather serious breech.

But for me the most important question is this. Mr Werritty is known to have been at the side of Dr Fox on numerous trips to various parts of the world. Mr Werritty was given access to the Secretary of State’s diary. Officials were present along with Mr Werritty, not at all times, but sometimes. Did they not ask what his roll was? Did they not ask who was paying the bill? Didn’t someone at the MoD notice what was going on? If they did not, then why not and shouldn’t we be worried? If, on the other hand they did know then who did they tell? If the Permanent Secretary was informed what did he do about it? Did the PS, for example, confront Dr Fox over the matter? Did the PS inform the Cabinet Secretary? If so was the Prime Minister informed of the matter?

Of course it could all amount to the failings of junior civil servants to put two and two together. But even so, although it is many, many years since I spent regular time at Westminster, I spent enough way back to know that it is the veritable fountainhead of venemous gossip and an epicentre of petty jealousy to rival a Year 8 Disco. Not an easy place to keep secrets either. Are we really expected to believe that nobody up there knew who tMr Werritty was and what he was? People talk you know? Especially politicians.

These are the questions that Labour’s leadership need to be asking and it is important to our democracy that they do. Depending on the outcome of the Cabinet Secretary’s investigation Labour should consider calling for a wider enquiry and certainly for the matters of Mr Werritty’s funding to be referred to the Electoral Commission.

The Fox episode, however amusing for left of centre commentators, has at it’s heart a serious business. It illustrates a fundamental failing at the heart of Government. It is another blow to public confidence in our democracy and gives the lie to any notion that this Conservative Government is any better than it’s predecessors.

As for Mr Cameron, he did the right thing by getting the Cabinet Secretary to investigate and, having done as Mr Miliband urged, was entitled to give time for the investigation to take place, but as soon as the trail of cash demonstrably led to shady donations and self-evident opacity Dr Fox had to go. That was Wednesday, after that Mr Cameron had only option. That it took 48 hours to get rid of Dr Fox was down to Mr Cameron’s own political calculations on how to handle the departure of a rival, or maybe just to give that rival enough rope to end his own career.

Whatever the truth, and with the right questions it will out, Dr Fox does not deserve a way back and there are serious failings to put right. For the good of our democracy Labour must not let this drop. It’s effectiveness here is a test of it’s competence in opposition.

But whatever happens next, the shine is now well and truly off this Government: David Laws, Andy Coulson, Liam Fox then there’s Theresa May (out of her depth), Oliver Letwin (out to lunch) and the Prime Minister himself who doesn’t seem to understand the basics of economic theory.

In less than 18 months we’ve had the highest unemployment in 17 years, manifestly broken promises (notably health), civil disorder, hooky goings on by Ministers. Even The Comic Strip and Ab Fab are back.

Same Old Tories indeed.