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Mysterious trust funded Fox’s trips to Sri Lanka

The Times newspaper reports Wednesday that Liam Fox is to face new questions over his links to Sri Lanka after it emerged that three of his trips there were funded by a mysterious trust that is not registered as a charity or a company.

Three visits to Sri Lanka, which cost about £7,500 and took place when Dr Fox was Shadow Defence Secretary, were funded by the Sri Lanka Development Trust.

It has an address in Edinburgh but is unknown to the Charity Commission and Companies House.

Tuesday night Labour put down parliamentary questions demanding to know how many times Dr. Fox had visited Sri Lanka and how many trips were financed by the Trust.

Dr. Fox was a guest of the Sri Lankan Government four times in less than 12 months before the May 2010 UK election.

On Monday Dr Fox said that the Trust was his attempt to “create a mechanism that would allow reconstruction funding to occur through the private sector”.

However, the Defence Secretary’s office would not reveal who funds it, how it makes a profit and who works for it.

And interestingly, the Trust has no website, no publicity material, and is unknown to aid workers who have worked in Sri Lanka.

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