The picture instantly conveys the mis-
match between his public persona and
his behaviour behind closed doors.
David Warburton, the Conservative
MP for Somerton and Frome, sits in a
dimly lit room with a whisky on the rocks,
his eyes dazed and his face resting on his
hand. In the foreground sitting atop an
upturned baking tray: four lines of
cocaine. He is said to have snorted “line
after line after line” of the drug at the
London home of a younger woman in the
early hours of February 1. He had met her
through politics and allegedly insisted on
coming over, despite evidence that she
was drunk.
Hours earlier Warburton, a 56-year-
old married father of two and former
businessman, had asked the woman to
order the class A drugs on his behalf, tell-
ing her he would pay for them. According
to an audio recording, he dismissed the
suggestion that paying £160 for two
grams was “spenny” — expensive — and
said it was “quite good actually”.
Only a few years ago, in the House of
Commons, Warburton condemned the
“appalling” exploitation of young people
involved in the sale of drugs and the
“intimidation, violence and criminal
incentives” they face. He has also called
for international action in “tackling the
drugs trade” and criticised “double stan-
dards” in politics. He is a former music
teacher and businessman, whose pur-
suits in his Somerset safe seat include lit-
ter-picking with the elderly and volun-
teering as an organist at his local church.
SEX HARASSMENT CLAIMS
His apparent misconduct eight weeks ago
did not stop with drugs. He allegedly
would not leave the woman’s home.
She recounts that as she became less
drunk she grew uncomfortable that the
pair were alone together and retreated to
her bedroom to put on her pyjamas in an
attempt to encourage his departure.
When she emerged, she says, Warburton
was naked. He allegedly explained that
he always slept nude and climbed into
her bed. Fearful of how he might react,
she did not push him away, she says, or
demand that he leave.
Despite her repeated and explicit
warnings, before and during his visit,
that she did not want to have sex with him
or do anything sexual, Warburton alleg-
edly ground his body against hers and
groped her breasts. The woman says she
lay frozen until the MP fell asleep.
The following morning Warburton is
said to have woken up and asked her if
she was “proud” that an MP had slept at
her home. She says she showed him the
door, then had a long shower. She felt
ashamed and violated. At 1.50pm he sent
her a WhatsApp message asking if she
was available and stating: “Promise I
won’t remove all my clothes again.” The
pair have not met since.
The woman did not make a complaint
to the police or any other authority. She
says Warburton was a powerful man and
she would not have known which course
of action to take. She also says she wanted
to forget about the incident.
However, two other women have
taken action against similar conduct by
Warburton. Both former aides, they had
to sidestep his parliamentary office, in no
small part because the person responsi-
ble for handling HR issues is his wife,
Harriet, whom he employs on a publicly
funded salary that could be up to £51,
a year. They instead approached the par-
liamentary authorities, who, it can be
revealed, are investigating Warburton in
relation to these two formal complaints.
Like the first woman, both complain-
ants to the Commons independent com-
plaints and grievance scheme (IGCS)
accuse him of unwanted sexual com-
ments and sexual touching. The women
complaining about Warburton said he
had boasted about his consumption of
cocaine and told them he kept the drug in
his taxpayer-funded flat a short walk
from Westminster. One woman has been
on sick leave since an incident in which
he allegedly touched and kissed her. The
other has been moved to a female MP’s
parliamentary office.
£100,000 LOAN
Warburton is not only alleged to be a risk
to women. Evidence suggests his conduct
could fall short of the rules governing
standards and transparency in public
life. He borrowed £100,000 from a Rus-
sian businessman without declaring it, a
decision that could lead to an investiga-
tion by the parliamentary commissioner
for standards.
The man who lent him the money is
Roman Joukovski, a financial adviser who
has specialised in offshore tax advice and
providing tier-one “golden” investor
visas to foreign citizens, including oli-
garchs and the family of Kazakhstan’s dic-
tator. In 2014 Financial Conduct Author-
ity refused to certify him as a “fit and
proper person”, limiting his ability to
provide certain kinds of financial advice,
and one of his businesses was recently
forced into insolvency after a separate
FCA ruling.
Warburton knew about Joukovski’s
past problems with the regulator, but
took the loan via an offshore entity linked
to the businessman’s family trust. He
later brought the Russian-born British cit-
izen into the Palace of Westminster and
used his parliamentary email address to
organise meetings for Joukovski, includ-
ing one with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit
opportunities secretary, who was a back-
bencher at the time in 2017. According to
a source with direct knowledge of the
transaction, Warburton has since repaid
the money at high levels of interest. He
declined to comment on the loan.
Parliamentary rules state that MPs
must register an interest, in this case aGABRIEL
POGRUNDWhitehall EditorDoes
your
dealer
deliver
to my
area?Promise
I won’t
remove
all my
clothes
againDavid Warburton
had called for
international
action to tackle
the drugs tradeWOMAN 2
Another former parliamentary aide says
that Warburton manipulated her into
returning to the same flat in
Westminster. He is said to have
caressed her. She alleges that he
physically stopped her from leaving,
marshalling her towards his bedroom.WOMAN 3
The woman, who met Warburton
through politics, says he insisted on
visiting her home when she was drunk,
and asked her to order cocaine on his
behalf. After snorting it, he allegedly
would not leave. He is said to have
stripped, climbed into her bed and
groped her.Roman Joukovski, a Russian with British
citizenship, lent more than £100,000 to
Warburton. At the time, he knew that
the Financial Conduct Authority had
serveral years earlier refused to certify
Joukovski as a fit and proper person.
The MP later brought him to the
parliamentary estate for meetings.THE RUSSIAN
The Sunday Times April 3, 2022 5INVESTIGATION
loan, within 28 days if it has any bearing
on their parliamentary activities. If an MP
has any doubt about whether an interest
should be declared, they are advised to
do so. At no point has Warburton dis-
closed details of his financial relationship
with Joukovski.
MPS’ MISCONDUCT
Yesterday the Conservative Party sus-
pended Warburton. The Whips’ Office
said: “David Warburton MP has had the
Conservative Party whip removed while
the investigation is ongoing.”
These disclosures come the week after
Charlie Elphicke, a former Tory MP and
convicted sex offender, dropped his legal
action against The Sunday Times, which
named him as an alleged rapist in 2018.
The newspaper spent the next four years
defending the story in the face of a law-
suit, justifying it in part because of ques-
tions about the way politics works.
The judge who sentenced Elphicke
said he had used his “status and respecta-
bility” as an MP as cover for his miscon-
duct. The allegations against Warburton
suggest he was doing the same and raise
the same questions about how power is
used and abused in parliament: Are
young women safe in a place that is sup-
posed to be a beacon of democracy? Do
politicians abide by the letter or spirit of
the rules they set? Does the opaque, old-
fashioned world of Westminster help or
hinder vulnerable people trying to hold
the powerful to account?
WARBURTON’S STORY
The MP’s Westminster career began in
May 2015, when he was elected in Somer-
ton and Frome, an affluent and mostly
rural constituency neighbouring Rees-
Mogg’s. The new MP was an ideal ambas-
sador for David Cameron’s Conservative
Party. A middle-aged family man with
moderate politics, he had grown up in
Reading and been educated at a gram-
mar. His wife was the daughter of a
former British consul in Los Angeles.
Having studied at the Royal College of
Music and begun his career as a music
teacher, Warburton had switched to busi-
ness, focusing on mobile phone technol-ogy. The self-made millionaire gave a nod
to the sector in his maiden speech in the
Commons, calling for improved broad-
band access for his seat. He signed off by
quoting Walter Bagehot, the essayist and
a former resident of his constituency, say-
ing: “The great pleasure in life is doing
what people say you cannot do.”
Soon Warburton was doing just that.
Despite criticism from opponents and his
own reported opposition to the practice,
he employed his wife as his official staff
member after his election, later defend-
ing her salary as being “pretty tremen-
dous value” to him and taxpayers alike.
LIVING RECKLESSLY
During the pandemic, Warburton’s life
changed. He spent time away from home,
in his taxpayer-funded flat in County
Hall, across the Thames from parliament.
His wife remained in Somerset caring for
their children. Then, in January last year,
Warburton posted a photograph reveal-
ing he had lost eight stone by lifting
weights and avoiding carbohydrates.
Warburton was living increasingly
recklessly. He started sending suggestive
texts last year to at least one younger
woman whom he had met through poli-
tics but did not work for him. It also
appears he took cocaine, writing to the
woman in November to say: “Yep have
some cheeky coke obvs.” Last month he
texted her saying: “Does your dealer do
Westminster Bridge area!?” He added:
“Have just been put on a one line-whip” —
meaning that he was not obliged to par-
ticipate in votes that day — “so your
happy Monday has made me want to call
my dealer ... but he takes aeons.”
The two women who have reported
him allege that Warburton started behav-
ing inappropriately towards them too,
both in parliament and at late-night
events in and around Westminster. The
conduct varied in its severity. He is said to
have subjected one female aide to
months of sexualised comments, telling
her he would have slept with her had they
been the same age and refusing to stop
calling her “baby”. At the British Kebab
awards, a boozy event in Westminster
attended by MPs and young researchers,he allegedly groped her thigh in an inci-
dent witnessed by another person.
The two women allege that Warburton
pressured them into drinking more alco-
hol than they were comfortable with and
coerced them into returning to his flat. In
one incident alleged to have taken place
this year, he told an aide to return with
him to the property, where, against her
will, he allegedly kissed her forehead,
stroked her hair, placed his hand on her
thigh and repeatedly rubbed it. The other
staff member recounted an incident in
which he had caressed her and refused to
let her leave his home, marshalling her
back inside when she sought to leave.
In the wake of the MeToo movement
all parties agreed that employment prac-
tices in Westminster needed to change.
Yet only a minority argued that MPs
should not be able directly to hire or fire
researchers or be stripped of responsibil-
ity for their line management and pro-
gression. Many conceded that this system
was inherently dangerous: MPs effec-
tively wielded total power, did not have to
report to any outside board or authority
on internal HR issues, and did not have to
report on employee satisfaction. Calls for
fundamental reform fizzled out.
Warburton appears to have benefited
from this inaction — and the fact that he
had employed his wife after his election.
By 2017, appointing a spouse to a
taxpayer-funded parliamentary role had
been banned, other than for those who
already employed family members. Last
December Warburton indicated he had
no plans to suspend her contract.
This created a perverse set of circum-
stances for those on the receiving end of
his alleged misconduct. Not only would
they have to report their powerful boss to
another person over whom he too had
authority, but that person would be his
wife, who was presumably unaware of
his apparent infidelity and alleged con-
duct. She was based in the constituency
much of the time. This is why one staffer
did not feel comfortable telling anyone
internally about her months of alleged
harassment or asking for help, instead
signing herself off on indefinite sick
leave.
Both have since formally reported
their allegations to the ICGS. In doing so,
they know that Warburton is likely to be
notified that he is under investigation via
the parliamentary standards commis-
sioner in due course, and that it is
unlikely they will be able to return to his
office. Last week the ICGS appointed
investigating officers to the two cases.
Once the ICGS has completed its inves-
tigation it will refer its findings to an inde-
pendent expert panel composed of eight
members, including former barristers,
judges and experienced members of
other adjudication bodies. Yet investiga-
tions can take a long time and are subject
to appeal. Only once a final decision is
reached will an MP face formal, public
sanction. Until then, and unless parties
are forced to take action because of pub-
licity, MPs are free to walk around the Pal-
ace of Westminster with impunity.
Even when claims are aired, parties
are reluctant to suspend MPs pre-emp-
tively or as a precautionary measure.
There is no set of rules or published gui-
dance to determine whether to do so.
Seven years after Warburton declared
that life was about doing what others say
you cannot do, and five after MeToo
prompted a serious but fleeting discus-
sion about rule-breaking in Westminster,
it appears the often self-regulating world
of SW1 did little to frustrate him.The case of a Tory MP accused of being a sex pest, taking cocaine and failing to
declare a loan raises questions about the safety of young staff in Westminster
WOMAN 1
A former parliamentary aide accuses
Warburton of coercing her into
returning to his flat, where, she says, he
kissed her forehead, stroked her hair
and rubbed her thigh. She says he
touched her bottom and thigh on
separate occasions. The woman has
been on indefinite sick leave since the
alleged incident.The
dishonourable
member
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE