A former Conservative MP has resigned with immediate effect following accusations of sexual harassment and cocaine use, triggering another by-election.
David Warburton said on Saturday that he has stood down from his seat of Somerton and Frome.
He had been sitting in the House of Commons as an independent after having the Tory whip suspended in April 2022 over the allegations.
It follows the resignations from Parliament of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ally Nigel Adams.
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries—another staunch Johnson ally—also announced she was going to quit, though she has so far refused to resigned formally, saying that she is staying while she seeks to investigate how she was denied a seat in the House of Lords.
‘No Choice’
Warburton had the Tory whip removed after an image was published which appeared to show the MP pictured alongside lines of a white substance.The Sunday Times reported that two women had made formal complaints to Parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) about Warburton’s behaviour and a third woman had also made allegations about his conduct.
Announcing his resignation on Saturday, Warburton claimed he had been denied a fair hearing by the ICGS and prevented from “speaking out” while it probed the accusations.
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 judgement may at any time be freighted.”
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Warburton admitted to taking cocaine after drinking “tons of incredibly potent” Japanese whiskey but denied claims that he harassed a female political aide in his Westminster flat.
Before Warburton’s resignation, two by-elections have already been scheduled for July 20 in Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency and Adams’s Selby and Ainsty seat.
But the by-election to replace Dorries in her Mid-Bedfordshire constituency remains on hold, as the former minister has not formally resigned despite her earlier announcement that she was quitting “with immediate effect.”
‘Sleaze and Scandal’
Warburton took the seat from the Liberal Democrats in 2015 and has a 19,213 majority, but the opposition party is now trying to reclaim the constituency.Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Time after time the Conservatives have mired themselves in sleaze and scandal, neglecting the issues that really matter to people. Then they decided it was okay to leave local people in this seat without any proper representation at all.
“This by-election will be a clear contest between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats—Labour finished third last time and are completely out of the race. The people of Somerton and Frome need a local champion and they can have that at the next election by choosing our local Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Dyke.”
Meanwhile, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Shabana Mahmood accused Sunak of being “too weak to act himself.”
“Yet again, we see a Tory MP resigning in disgrace after Rishi Sunak was too weak to act himself. Enough is enough,” she said.
“Britain can’t afford this weak Conservative prime minister with a party too divided to govern as families struggle with the cost of living. It’s time to turn the page on 13 years of Tory chaos. We need a general election now and a Labour government led by Keir Starmer.”
