ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: We are used to hearing that the government is failing injured soldiers returning home from conflict but now the former defence secretary, Liam Fox, says they are failing the families as well and since he’s not top dog at the MOD any more he’s launched his own charity to try to deal with the problem. Let’s say a very good morning to the former defence secretary Liam Fox, good morning to you Dr Fox. Just tell us what are your proposals to do more to help injured soldiers returning from conflict and, of course, their families?

LIAM FOX: Well I think we’ve done wonders in improving how we deal with those with physical injuries and I think we’ve gone a long way to help those dealing with mental injuries but I think we’ve perhaps forgotten that key unit is the family and in the five years I spent working with the armed forces as a doctor before I was an MP, I learned that if you want to have unhappy service personnel, have unhappy service families. So in looking at that wider dynamic I’ve, in conjunction with the Afghan Heroes charity, set up a project called Give Us Time and what it says is if you’ve got a timeshare or a holiday home or a second home, give us some of the weeks that you’re not using and we will use them for families to try to recover together from combat. It might be a family who’ve lost a father in combat, it may be someone who’s injured back with their family or just a family that’s having difficulty adjusting to post-combat life and I think that if we are able as a society to help them, so much the better and I think if we are able to do it without any tax payers money and without the dead hand of government, so much the better.

DM: Well it’s interesting, that was the point I wanted to get on to, I mean is there an implied criticism of what the government is doing? After all, these servicemen and women act on our behalf, shouldn’t this be the government’s responsibility and are you saying they are letting them down?

LF: Well it would be great if the government had a financial position that enabled us to do all that we wanted but as you know, we inherited a grim financial position from Labour. The important thing is that the military covenant is not just between the government and the armed forces, it’s between all the people and the armed forces and what I want to show is that out there, there is a reservoir of support, that people do understand that families are the key unit and if we can get families to heal then we are much more likely to get individuals to heal and we have set up this charity project trying to use surplus that people have, rather than asking for something new. We are saying that there is time out there that you have, why not give us that time and we will put it to good use.

DM: There is also talk more widely in some cases of service personnel in uniform while they are going about their business on the streets in the United Kingdom, in some circumstances facing abuse, being denied mortgages, financial services and things like that. Do you think there could be legislation on areas like that, beyond what you’re proposing?

LF: Well I think it is absolutely disgusting that we have that sort of behaviour where people abuse and insult our armed forces, whether it is home coming parades or we’ve seen in petrol stations and elsewhere. The best way to [deal with this] is not for us to silence the critics, we live in a free society, the best way is for the rest of us to raise our voices in support and drown them out and I hope that this sort of project allows people the […] to do just that and to show that there is a huge level of support for our armed forces and their families in this country and that the hateful minority are just that and they are not at all typical of the people of the United Kingdom.

DM: But did you do as much during your tenure at the Ministry of Defence, Dr Fox, to address these issues whilst you were there or is it a matter of some regret to you now that perhaps you didn’t press down on these issues?

LF: Well we looked at a number of ways of trying to help in this particular way. We didn’t have the time when I was there to complete that so one of my priorities out of the Cabinet has been to ensure that the project gets completed and we have been given phenomenal help from companies such as Serco, the big national company, right down to small local companies here in the West Country like Fanatica, local design company, and others. I can tell you this morning that Richard Branson through Virgin Trains has said that whilst we are undertaking the pilot for this they will make the rail network free for us and that’s another example of how we can get the private sector involved in helping.

DM: Can we just move on to another area where we can key into your expertise of course, while you were at the Ministry of Defence the whole Libyan conflict and its resolution took place. Do you see any parallels with what’s happening in Syria at the moment or is it way, way different and spiralling inevitably towards civil war in your estimation?

LF: It is different but there are similarities. It is different in its political context and its wider geopolitical context, it’s similar in terms of the human rights and the slaughter of individuals. We were able to stop that in Libya, we’ve not so far been able to stop it in Syria. I think it’s important for us to work out what is a good resolution for the Syrian question both for the Syrian people and the wider region but there is another question which is how long will the international community allow what it thinks needs to be done to be vetoed by countries like China and Russia who have perhaps a very different human rights perspective than we do.

DM: Do you think though it is moving towards civil war and is there any military role external powers, such as our own, can play?

LF: Well certainly there is no question of the United Kingdom either acting alone or being able to act alone, the question is whether there is any role for the international community in any military intervention. That again is a very difficult […] complex internal politics of Syria but there will always be the question that while we are working out what is a good outcome, families are trying to protect themselves and in some cases being murdered by either the regime or elements in support of the regime and how long can the international community stand aside and watch that.

DM: Ah, so do you mean something like humanitarian safe zones guarded perhaps by aircraft from a country such as our own?

LF: Well there would be a number of potential ways in which […] could help out, they all have to be looked at and certainly the government and our fellow partners in the […] community will be doing that.

DM: Just moving on to the eurozone crisis, how do you, now you are out of government, view the current economic debate? Do you think we are more or less in the right place given we read the Chancellor writing this morning about just what a threat and the effect it has been having on growth in our country, the eurozone crisis, or do you think we need now to go for some kind of stimulus to protect us against that downturn?

LF: Well the government is absolutely right to have as its priority the deficit reduction, that’s what’s making us able to borrow at such cheap levels but I think we could go further in terms of supply side reform. I have suggested for example labour market reform to make us more competitive in a global context.

DM: Labour market reform, what about tax cuts?

LF: Well you can only have tax cuts really if you are willing to make further reductions in public spending. My own view is that it is certainly worth doing that to give us the room to get more growth in the economy but it is a matter of judgement.

DM: Okay, and if we go along that path, meanwhile the eurozone itself moves towards closer integration both politically and fiscally, does that alter our relationship fundamentally with the European Union and therefore would trigger a referendum?

LF: Well clearly if there were further changes that would have to be put to a referendum in Britain but the whole eurozone problem was entirely predictable. They wouldn’t decide whether it was either a political project or an economic project, they are still not doing so and it now looks very wise for John Major at the outset to say who would go into anything that didn’t have an exit? How right he was to disregard the advice of the Labour party at the time and keep Britain out of the single currency.

DM: But is our potential exit a referendum? As you know we have got Nigel Farage from UKIP on the programme a little bit later, the polls are telling us they are making great headway with their promises of that. Do you think in the next Conservative party manifesto for 2015 it should be an explicit promise to the public?

LF: I think that the whole development of the European Union may well be much further ahead of that particular debate as to what comes in a 2015 manifesto. I think that the way in which Europe is changing rapidly under the pressure of the failed eurozone may change the terms of that debate quite […] in the coming months.

DM: Okay, I’ve just got to apologise to our viewers, Dr Fox, for a moment or two, we’re having a little bit of break up on the picture but we are hearing the vast majority of what you’re saying. Can I also ask you on other contentious issues within the Conservative party and particularly vis-a-vis your partners in coalition there, this issue of gay marriage seems to be bubbling around and in danger of splitting your party, causing great divisions within it anyway.

LF: Well it is a contentious issue. I have to say I am much more in favour of social mobility than social engineering.

DM: Right, short and to the point, so you would say that is social engineering?

LF: I think the vast majority of the public have a totally different set of priorities from what I would call the metropolitan elite and I think they’ll be looking for those economic and social issues to be dealt with first.

DM: Okay so not a priority. Finally can I just ask you about the co-chairman of the Conservative party, Baroness Warsi, and the problems she seems to be facing in terms of a couple of investigations into her affairs. Do you see any parallels in terms of her dealings with a business associate and yours and Mr Werrity’s?

LF: No, I think she’s quite right, the investigation should take place and people should wait until the outcome and not pre-judge it.

DM: But do you think, as the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said, that people are out to get her? He has said ‘there is a lynch mob out there who are steadily working through my colleagues to find things to complain about’?

LF: Well if you think that politics was ever anything else I think you’re probably not making a very good assessment of history. I think it’s a very sad element in our media that there does seem to be this lynch mob mentality but if you want to be popular, go into light entertainment not politics. Politics is a tough business and you’d better take the rough with the smooth.

DM: Okay Dr Fox, thank you very much indeed for your time there. Liam Fox there and once again our apologies for one or two slight glitches there on the line.