Liam “Winston” Fox is a closet Nat

By James Mills / @JamesMills1984

The Defence Secretary Liam Fox has had a rather busy week. He was only in Washington on Monday, but managed to jet back in time to give evidence to a Select Committee on Wednesday and attend a lunch with political journalists in the House of Commons yesterday.

He seemed to be very happy to finally be there (after complaining of a 17 year wait for an invite to speak at the Parliamentary Press Lobby lunch). And after this contribution I am sure it won’t be such a long wait again.

Dr Fox began with a few gags and the customary front bench trash talk about Labour, before he began to venture a little off-piste. At one stage he said he agreed with Francis Fukuyama that one of the reasons for the West’s decline to the East was due to the Welfare State.

But then came the Q&A and an un-prepped Fox seemed to forget himself.

In response to whether he would like to replace David Cameron as leader he gave faint praise to the PM’s “skills” at working with the Lib Dems something he didn’t think he could personally do. Ouch.

When asked whether he would prefer an SNP or Labour victory in the Scottish elections next week he pretty much gave his second preference to the Nats – confirming that they are really the “Tartan Tories” – by admitting that, despite his approval of Annabel Goldie’s leadership, the Scottish Conservatives lose votes to nationalists. He went on to strongly hint he would rather see them prevail than Labour.

However, the best bit was towards the end when one journo asked whether he regretted his much maligned ‘bar stool General’ approach over Libya, to which he replied by comparing himself to Churchill, (and not the insurance company):

“That’s bit like asking Churchill if he regrets having a drink during WWII”.

The look on his face said he regretted saying it the moment it left his lips. The sniggers from the now more than well fed hacks confirmed it…