Now Fox faces inquiry by sleaze watchdog

Standards Commissioner John Lyon will look into a complaint from Bassetlaw MP John Mann that Mr Werritty was allowed to live in a flat funded from Dr Fox’s parliamentary allowances and to run the Atlantic Bridge charity from the MP’s Commons office.

Dr Fox said last night he would “fully answer all questions raised” in accordance with the inquiry.

The announcement came just hours after Mr Cameron had attempted to brush off questions from Ed Miliband about the affair by telling the Labour leader he was jumping on a bandwagon that had already stopped.

Mr Cameron was challenged by the Labour leader to give a “categorical guarantee” that no other Ministers are relying on unofficial advisers following the “deeply worrying” affair. But the PM responded: “You seem to have failed to have noticed that the Minister in question has resigned. You’re just a bit late.”

Dr Fox himself made a personal apology to the Commons for allowing the distinction between his ministerial responsibilities and his personal friendship with Mr Werritty to become “blurred”.

He said he accepted the conclusion of Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell that he had breached the ministerial code of conduct, and recognised he should have listened to civil servants’ warnings about the nature of his association with his friend.

The failure of senior civil servants to deal with the issue sooner is to be the subject of another investigation, however, amidst concerns officials do not feel able to stand up to Ministers.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, said the senior civil service needed to be more confident about holding ministers to account, questioning why it took more than a year for Mr Werritty’s frequent presence alongside Dr Fox to become an issue. “The senior civil service are part of the checks and balances of our constitution,” Mr Jenkin said. “Just to say in this report that the risks of Dr Fox’s association with Mr Werritty were raised with (him)... I don’t think is a get-out-of-jail-free card.”