David Cameron is due to receive the initial findings of an official report on whether the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, has broken ministerial guidelines.

The prime minister has asked the head of the Civil Service to speed up the inquiry into the working relationship between Doctor Fox and his friend, Adam Werritty, who has business interests in the defence industry.

Dr Fox has apologised for giving the impression of wrongdoing, but said he did not break any rules.

Speaking on the Today programme, the Conservative MP Greg Hands, said that he believes Dr Fox is being unfairly treated.

"I think Dr Fox has made a very full and frank admission on the things that did go wrong and I think we should take that at face value subject to the investigation that will be published later today," he told presenter John Humphrys.

"There's a lot of background to this case in the United States between a major corporation and a private equity firm and there is actually quite a bad smell about some of the briefing against Liam Fox that's been going on, full of smear and innuendo, so I think the opposition will probably have to be very careful on this as well."

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