In between shopping sprees on expenses at Harrods, Richard Ottaway, the Tory head of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was flown out to the States in 2007 by Liam Fox’s now defunct charity Atlantic Bridge. He conveniently forgot to declare it in the Register of Members Interests. Speaking to his local paper when it emerged late last week, he was pretty sketchy about the details, claiming to “have very little precise recall of the visit.” It was nothing to do with him being on the Intelligence and Security Select Committee at the time, of course. 

Guido asked a former insider at the charity what was going on, they jested:

“This is all blown out of proportion, there’s nothing sinister here… just pragmatic efforts from leading Conservative figures in the UK to ensure that any incoming Conservative government would be nice and in line with hawkish US foreign policy.”

Too near the truth etc…