Last March, David Warburton proudly
shared a copy of a letter he had sent the
Treasury requesting financial help for
musicians during the pandemic. The
Conservative MP for Somerton and
Frome signed off his Instagram post:
“Don’t ask, don’t get.”
Warburton, 56, a married father of
two, chairs the all-party parliamentary
group on music, having played guitar in
an amateur rock band and started his
career as a music teacher. He volunteers
as an organist at his local church.
Days later, on March 12, Warburton
sent another message, again using official
parliamentary notepaper, once more
lobbying a public body. This time, the let-
ter was supposed to remain secret.
It was a character reference asking the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to
reconsider its assessment of a Russian-
born businessman, Roman Joukovski.
Joukovski, 53, had made millions
advising Russian oligarchs on how to
secure visas to the UK and structure their
wealth offshore. He had also lent Warbur-
ton £150,000 in 2017 at 8 per cent interest
from an offshore trust in the Seychelles.
Nowhere did the MP declare this financial
relationship.
Over the years, Joukovski had
attracted colourful clients — among them
Russia’s wealthiest woman, the grandson
of Kazakhstan’s dictator and ultra-
wealthy Chinese investors — but also con-
troversy.
In 2014, the FCA refused to certify him
as a fit and proper person and said he had
failed to satisfy them he was “capable of
acting honestly and with the level of
integrity we would expect”.
In 2019, it launched an investigation
into one of his companies, later conclud-
ing that it “dishonestly or recklessly” pro-
vided misleading information about its
visa schemes and its relationship with a
client, and forcing it into administration.
Joukovski was trying to persuade the
He’s an
honest
person
I trustSecuring
golden
visas for
oligarchsHelp for frontline female soldiers
in fight against inferiority complex
environment [but] their
confidence could really
suffer, particularly during
physical tests. They felt
everyone was watching them
and they had to prove
themselves more than their
male colleagues.”
The workshops cover
women’s health, including
topics such as menstruation
in combat zones, and the
difficulties arising when
sanitary equipment is not
easily available.
Diane Allen, a former
lieutenant colonel in the
army, said: “Not all women
would be affected
performance-wise by the
menstrual cycle but some
would be. A surge of
hormones can heighten the
emotional range in women,
just like testosterone can
increase the emotional
response on the male side.”
The workshops are
understood to break down
biases and stereotypes such
as “women are emotional”
and explore “role
entrapment”, where women
see themselves as always
having to support others.
Women were also given
advice on contraception and
discussions were held on how
female troops could be given“urinary support in the
field”, because women take
longer to relieve themselves
outside and it is harder for
them to do so discreetly.
Allen also called for
workshops to help men come
to terms with women being
on the front line, saying: “A
lot of the problems women
are facing in combat roles is
caused because of isolation,
and a toxic element in the
male ranks who are grieving
about women coming into
combat roles.
“Those men are struggling
to give them that space.”
Captain Jessica Wood, who
attended a workshop, said:
“Their advice on how to
perform at your best while
operating in a high-pressure
environment really translated
well from the world of sport
to soldiering. I would love to
see this concept delivered
across the army as lacking in
confidence is not an issue
that’s exclusive to women.”
In 2018 the government
announced that women
would be allowed to apply for
all military roles including
close combat.Women can
also put themselves forward
for selection for specialist
units including the SAS.
@DavidCollinsSTFemale soldiers in combat
roles are being given
“confidence workshops” by
army psychologists to boost
their self-esteem and teach
them how to work in stressful
situations with large groups
of men.
Army psychologists
gathered evidence that the
confidence of some women
was suffering in male-
dominated units, particularly
during physical tests, such as
training exercises, where
they felt they would be more
heavily scrutinised than male
counterparts.
The army’s standard
fitness tests mean a soldier
has to be able to run 2km in 11
minutes and 30 seconds.
Dr Joanna Harvey,
principal occupational
psychologist at the army’s
headquarters in Andover,
Hampshire, has devised the
workshops, which are run by
top athletes. She told
Soldiermagazine: “I’ve been
involved in this realm for six
or seven years and what
struck me was that
sometimes we had sporty
females who were very
confident in an athletic
David Collins and
Susan Watkins
Women often
feel more heavily
scrutinised than
male colleagues,
especially
during training
exercises, army
psychologists
have foundDavid Warburton, who was
suspended after sex and drugs
claims, is now accused of using
his status to persuade financial
regulators that a controversial
businessman was ‘fit
and proper’, writes
Gabriel Pogrund
12
INVESTIGATION
Disgraced Tory MP’s brazen
lobbying for Russian who lent
him £150,
As an MP, he earned £76,000 a year.
His wife earned up to £51,000 as his tax-
payer-funded personal assistant and
press officer, and worked part-time at an
estate agency in Somerset. Sources say
such revenue did not nearly cover the
luxury expenses to which Warburton felt
entitled as a member of parliament.
In the summer of 2017, Warburton
decided on a new source of revenue: he
would convert his marital home into an
Airbnb rental. He and his wife had for
years lived in the Old Vicarage in Glaston-
bury, near his seat, an eight-bedroom
property complete with a hot tub, games
room and wine cellar. Now they would
downsize. The only wrinkle in the plan:
Warburton did not have the cash to reno-
vate the property.
He turned to his new acquaintance,
Joukovski, in the July of that year.
The Russian had spent a decade woo-ing the establishment. His firm’s website
claimed he had a “bold vision: to reimag-
ine finance using fresh thinking”. But his
firms specialised in securing Tier 1
“golden visas” for oligarchs — a scheme
since shut down by the British govern-
ment because of “security concerns”,
including the illegitimate wealth of appli-
cants. Joukovski’s firm sidestepped the
rules, according to the FCA: it engineered
a scheme in which, rather than investing
£2 million in the British economy, the
supposed threshold for securing a visa,
people could pay just £400,000.
With a string of ultra-wealthy clients,
the businessman had secured audiences
for himself and his associates with Prin-
ces William and Harry and Sir John Major.
LOAN FROM THE SEYCHELLES
One institution remained impervious to
Joukovski’s charms: the FCA. Its vettingteam ruled his actions had risked turning
a previous employer into a “vehicle for
financial crime” and his pattern of con-
duct undermined his honesty and integ-
rity. A senior official said in a letter to
him: “You appear to be unwilling to com-
ply with your regulatory obligations.”
On July 21, Warburton produced
detailed advice on how to reverse Joukov-
ski’s status with the regulator. In the doc-
ument, marked “private and confiden-
tial”, he argued the best way to help the
Russian was to open a dialogue with the
FCA. He advised establishing contact
both “formally and informally” — “con-
versations behind the scenes with the
Authority and those close to it”.
He appeared to believe there was a fail-
safe should things go wrong: “If neces-
sary, appeal can be made to the chief sec-
retary to the Treasury.” That was Liz
Truss, now the foreign secretary.FCA to change its stance and was able to
draw on support from Warburton, a quiet
but experienced member of parliament,
who submitted a character statement
backing him. The final version was
almost word-for-word the same letter
drafted days earlier by Joukovski’s solici-
tor, a partner at a City lawyer.
“Dear Sirs,” it read. “I am writing this
reference on behalf of Roman Joukovski. I
was introduced to him through a mutual
friend some four years ago... I know
Roman socially and also in relation to his
business activities. Dealing with him dur-
ing this period I have formed a positive
view of Roman; in my judgement he is
extremely capable and an honest and
straightforward person whom I trust.”
A year on, Warburton is not the same
public figure. He has been accused of sex-
ual misconduct by three women and of
procuring cocaine. The Tory party sus-
pended him last week. Warburton
claimed that he had “enormous amounts
of defence”, then admitted himself to a
psychiatric hospital for what one relative
described as severe shock and stress.
The new correspondence about the
loan raises fresh questions about the
integrity of parliament.
A NEW SOURCE OF FUNDS
The story of Warburton’s relationship
with Joukovski begins in 2017, two years
after he had been elected to parliament
with a 20,000 majority. He appeared a
classic Tory backbencher: a mild Euro-
sceptic dedicated to local issues, mostly
internet and transport connectivity.
He had married into money and pres-
tige — his wife, Harriet, is the daughter of
a former British consul-general in Los
Angeles — and made money of his own,
having pivoted from teaching to mobile
phone technology and commercial prop-
erty. He had two young children, a son
and a daughter, who went to a private
boarding school.