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International Trade secretary Liam Fox has claimed he is being blackmailed by his mobile phone provider after they insisted he keeps paying his phone bill despite him wanting to leave.
Fox criticised his mobile provider, after he said he would like to walk away from his agreement with them, without penalty, and retain access to the mobile number he was given by them.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “It is blackmail, pure and simple. They insist I can’t leave and take my phone number with me while I still owe them money, but I say I don’t actually owe them because I haven’t actually used the rest of my contracted minutes yet.
“They go on and on about the agreement I entered into, and all I hear from them is ‘signed contract this’ and ‘legal obligation’ that.
“They think I have to keep paying them £45 a month, but I have an obligation to myself to make sure I try and find a way to avoid having to do that.
“This relentless demand that I keep paying the money I agreed to pay is simply criminal. It would be better for both sides if they just let me leave without paying anything and I get to keep my phone number so I can still call them for a chat every now and again.
“The people have spoken, and they want me to leave my contract, and that’s what I’ll do.”
His mobile provider told us, “It’s really very simple. We have an agreement in place, one he freely entered into, and it has a process built in for him to exit that agreement whenever he likes.
“If he wants to keep his number, all he has to do is just keep paying us every month till he has no more liabilities to us, or settle up by paying a one-off fee for the amount left on his contract.
“If he thinks that’s blackmail, he should wait to see the heavies we send round when you don’t pay up.”
