A disgraced former Tory MP who quit politics after getting embroiled in a sex and cocaine scandal has died suddenly aged 59.
David Warburton was pronounced dead after paramedics rushed to his Chelsea flat last Tuesday.
He had served as the MP for Somerset and Frome for over eight years, from May 2015 to June 2023.
However, his political career collapsed after he was accused of sexual harassment and class A drug use amid allegations he was targeted as part of a ‘sting’ operation.
He was suspended from the Conservative Party in April 2022 before resigning his seat in June of 2023.
His sudden death this week is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious, investigators have said.
Fellow former MP Stephen Danczuk said: ‘It’s such sad news. He had really got back on track after having a difficult time in politics.
‘He had got back on track and was doing very well in business, running an energy company. He turned his life back around really, it’s incredibly sad news.
David Warburton, who resigned as MP for Somerton and Frome in June 2023, has died suddenly aged 59
The former Tory MP was pronounced dead after being found at his home in Chelsea, London
‘I met him for drinks in Belgravia a few months ago. He was really doing well. He had a great team around him. Things were really on the up for him.’
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘We were called on Tuesday 26 August at 10.14am to reports of an incident in Chelsea Crescent, Chelsea Harbour, SW10.
‘We sent an ambulance crew and a clinician in a response car. Sadly a man was pronounced dead at the scene.’
The Metropolitan Police said the force had been alerted about the death of the MP by the ambulance service at 10.47am on August 26.
‘A man in his 50s was found dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed,’ a a police spokesman said
‘His death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious.’
Warburton had refuted claims he had been involved in a sex and drugs scandal.
However, the MP later confirmed he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital with stress, claiming at the time he had been feeling suicidal.
Warburton served as the MP for Somerset and Frome for over eight years, from May 2015 to June 2023
He later admitted to taking cocaine after drinking ‘tons of incredibly potent’ Japanese whiskey, but denied claims he harassed a female political assistant in his Westminster flat.
Mr Warburton then won an appeal against a ruling he sexually harassed one of his Commons aides – who for legal reasons cannot be identified.
In July 2023, the Commons’ Independent Expert Panel revealed it had upheld his appeal against the findings and ordered his case be reinvestigated after criticising the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who oversaw it.
At the time, commissioner Daniel Greenberg found him guilty of three sexual misconduct allegations, instead of the two upheld by the initial inquiry.
In an unusual step the committee revealed it took its decision several days before Mr Warburton resigned, but followed convention by not announcing its findings for several weeks.
When he announced his exit from Parliament in June 2023, Mr Warburton hit out at the investigation, claiming he had been denied a fair hearing.
However, his political career came crashing down around him after being accused of sexual harassment and drug abuse (pictured is the Daily Mail’s front page at the time of the scandal)
In his resignation letter he said had been left with ‘no choice’ but to provoke ‘the upheaval of a by-election’, adding: ‘It is my hope that, in so doing, I can freely illuminate the methods of an oversight system not fit for purpose, so that friends and colleagues in the House can see the perverted process by which their own judgment may at any time be freighted.’
It came after a staffer in Mr Warburton’s Westminster office lodged a complaint with the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme in March 2022, making four sexual misconduct and two bullying and harassment allegations against him.
In a report, the panel said the initial investigation under Parliament’s ICGS recommended upholding two sexual misconduct allegations.
However, Mr Greenberg then reviewed the evidence and found Mr Warburton guilty of a third, unspecified sexual misconduct charge.
Mr Warburton appealed against Mr Greenberg’s decision on the grounds it was ‘procedurally flawed and unreasonable’ and based on a ‘materially flawed’ investigation.
He said the woman ‘had colluded with witnesses to fabricate’ the ‘malicious’ complaint against him, and that the ICGS failed to consider material he submitted to support his claim, according to the IEP’s report.
The panel said it made no findings on the allegations against Mr Warburton or his claims of fabrication, but ruled that a reinvestigation is ‘necessary and proportionate’.
Mr Warburton leaves behind his wife Harriet and two children.
