Timeline: how controversy unfolded
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Your support makes all the difference.From 1998 to 2011, the events which led up to Liam Fox's resignation as Defence Secretary...
1998: Liam Fox, then an opposition spokesman for constitutional affairs, meets Adam Werritty, a student at Edinburgh University who is 17 years his junior.
1999: Dr Fox appointed shadow health secretary.
2002/03: Mr Werritty stays as a flatmate in a spare room at Dr Fox's London home.
2002: Mr Werritty becomes consultant at a firm called UK Health.
2004: Mr Werritty works as a paid intern for Dr Fox and receives a Commons pass. He also becomes director of UK Health Group, of which he and Dr Fox are shareholders.
2005:
December 6 - Dr Fox moves to defence brief in David Cameron's shadow cabinet.
December 17 - Mr Werritty is best man at Dr Fox's wedding to Jesme Baird.
2006: Mr Werritty becomes director of a group called Security Futures, which later folds.
2007: Mr Werritty appointed UK executive director of the Atlantic Bridge charity, founded by Dr Fox to promote Anglo-American relations.
2009: Dr Fox and Mr Werritty visit Sri Lanka together.
2010:
April 22 - Burglary at Dr Fox's London home while his wife is away.
May 12 - Dr Fox is appointed Defence Secretary in Mr Cameron's first Cabinet.
June 4 - Dr Fox and Mr Werritty attend conference in Singapore.
June 7 - Dr Fox and Mr Werritty meet in Dubai.
July 3 - Mr Werritty joins Dr Fox for an informal dinner in a Florida steakhouse with US general John Allen, the commander of international Isaf forces in Afghanistan.
August 6 - Dr Fox meets Mr Werritty during weekend leave in Dubai.
September 30 - Atlantic Bridge loses charitable status after Charity Commission rules it is a group fighting for a political cause. Trustees later agree to close it down.
October 20 - Mr Werritty attends a meeting he has set up between Dr Fox and Sri Lankan foreign minister Gamini Peiris at the MoD.
December - Mr Werritty is present at a private meeting in London between Dr Fox and Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
December 2 - Dr Fox and Mr Werritty at conference in Bahrain.
December 17 - Dr Fox in Dubai for meetings, Mr Werritty present in a "personal/business capacity".
2011:
January 23 - Dr Fox and Mr Werritty meet in Dubai "in a private capacity".
February 6 - Dr Fox attends a dinner arranged by Mr Werritty in Tel Aviv.
February 17 - Dr Fox and Mr Werritty take skiing holiday together.
April - Mr Werritty meets businessman Harvey Boulter of private equity firm Porton Group and suggests he may be able to fix up a meeting with Dr Fox to discuss his company Cellcrypt, which makes military communications equipment. Dr Fox introduced to Boulter "in passing".
April 14 - Dr and Mrs Fox take holiday in Abu Dhabi with Mr Werritty.
May 22-25 - Mr Werritty is present at political meetings with Dr Fox in US and accompanies him on private flight back to UK on party donor's aircraft.
June 12 - It emerges that a multimillion-pound lawsuit is being brought by Porton and the MoD's civilian research arm Ploughshare Innovations against US conglomerate 3M for its alleged failure to develop a technology for detecting the superbug MRSA.
June 17 - Dr Fox meeting with Mr Boulter in a Dubai hotel, organised by Mr Werritty after the businessman bumped into him in a restaurant the previous day.
Later that day, Mr Boulter emails 3M lawyers urging them to settle the lawsuit and telling them that he has discussed with Dr Fox the possible withdrawal of a knighthood from the company's British boss, Sir George Buckley. His email results in 3M launching a blackmail suit.
June 24 - MoD issues Dr Fox's denial that he discussed the 3M dispute with Mr Boulter.
June - Defence Secretary learns that Mr Werritty is using business cards bearing the parliamentary portcullis and describing himself as Dr Fox's adviser, and tells him to stop.
July 9 - Dr Fox visits Sri Lanka to deliver Kadagamar Memorial speech. Mr Werritty is in the audience.
August 5-19 - Dr Fox on holiday in Spain with family and friends including Mr Werritty.
August 8 - The Guardian reports on Dr Fox's meeting with Mr Boulter. The Defence Secretary confirms Mr Boulter did raise the issue of his dispute with 3M but denies the knighthood was discussed.
August 19 - The Guardian names Mr Werritty as broker of the meeting with Mr Boulter, noting that he describes himself as an adviser to Dr Fox but is not an employee of the MoD.
September 15 - In a written ministerial answer to Labour MP John Mann, Dr Fox states: "Mr Werritty is not an employee of the Ministry of Defence and has, therefore, not travelled with me on any official overseas visits."
October 5 - It is revealed that Mr Werritty has visited Dr Fox at the MoD in Whitehall on 14 occasions since he took office. Dr Fox insists the meetings were "not in an official capacity".
October 6 - Dr Fox denounces what he says are "baseless allegations" about his links with Mr Werritty and asks MoD permanent secretary Ursula Brennan to carry out an internal inquiry to establish whether there has been any breach of national security or the ministerial code.
October 7 - Dr Fox's visit to Libya is overshadowed by media reports of his links with Mr Werritty.
October 8 - Mr Cameron demands an interim report by the start of the next week.
October 9 - After a phone conversation with the Prime Minister, Dr Fox issues a statement accepting that he was wrong to meet Mr Boulter in the absence of officials and recognising that the "misleading impression" may have been given that Mr Werritty was an adviser, rather than a friend.
October 10 - Dr Fox gives a statement to the Commons, in which he apologises for blurring the lines between ministerial responsibilities and loyalties to a friend, but denies wrongdoing.
Mr Cameron receives interim report from Ms Brennan, which states that it was "not appropriate" for material from Dr Fox's diary to have been made available to Mr Werritty.
Downing Street says it is clear that "serious mistakes" have been made and Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell is ordered to take over the inquiry.
MoD releases a list of 40 meetings between Dr Fox and Mr Werritty either in the MoD's Whitehall offices or on trips overseas.
October 11 - Mr Werritty interviewed by Cabinet Office officials as part of Sir Gus O'Donnell's inquiry.
October 12 - It emerges that a younger man was present in Dr Fox's flat at the time of last year's burglary. A press conference scheduled during Dr Fox's visit to Paris is cancelled. "Friends" of Dr Fox suggest that Mr Werritty may be a Walter Mitty-style fantasist, to the reported annoyance of the Defence Secretary.
October 14 - Dr Fox resigns.
PA
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