Former Conservative MP David Warburton, who resigned from Parliament amid allegations of sexual harassment and cocaine use, has been found dead at his Chelsea flat aged 59, just two years after the scandal that ended his political career.
The ex-MP for Somerset and Frome was pronounced dead after paramedics were called to his Chelsea Crescent home in Sands End, west London, at 10.14am last Tuesday. Police are treating the death as unexpected but not suspicious, and his next of kin have been informed.
Warburton had served as an MP from May 2015 until his resignation in June 2023, following a 14-month investigation into allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances towards two women and took cocaine. The Sunday Times had published a photograph showing him sitting at a table with four lines of white powder on an upside-down baking tray.
Fellow former MP Simon Danczuk told The Sun that Warburton had successfully rebuilt his life after leaving politics. It’s such sad news. He had really got back on track after having a difficult time in politics,” Mr Danczuk said. “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.”
Mr Danczuk revealed he had met Warburton for drinks in Belgravia just months ago, adding: “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 confirmed: “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 added: “Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 10.47hrs on Tuesday, 26 August to an address at Chelsea Crescent, Sands End. A man in his 50s was found dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed. His death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious.”
Warburton’s political career came crashing down in April 2022 when he was suspended from the Conservative Party following allegations published in The Sunday Times. Three women had accused him of sexual harassment, with one claiming he had snorted “line after line” of cocaine before stripping naked and groping her breasts at her flat.
The parliamentary Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) launched an investigation into the allegations. Warburton admitted taking cocaine after drinking what he described as “incredibly potent” whisky, but denied the harassment claims, saying he had been “set up” but was “naive and incredibly stupid.”
The scandal took a severe toll on his mental health, and Warburton later revealed he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital suffering from “severe shock and stress.” His wife Harriet described the experience as “sheer hell” for their family.
Three sexual misconduct allegations were initially upheld by the ICGS, but this decision was later overturned by the Independent Expert Panel on appeal. In July 2023, after the claimant withdrew all allegations, the panel ruled that “the allegation that the complaint was fabricated” should be investigated by parliamentary authorities.
Warburton resigned his seat in June 2023, claiming he had been denied a fair hearing by the watchdog and had no choice but to provoke “the upheaval of a by-election.” In his resignation statement to the Mail on Sunday, he controversially claimed the MeToo movement’s “pendulum has swung too far” and wanted it to “swing back” to a “fair place.”
His departure triggered a by-election in Somerset and Frome, which was won by Liberal Democrat Sarah Dyke, who overturned Warburton’s 19,213 Conservative majority to win by 11,008 votes. The seat was subsequently abolished as part of boundary changes that came into effect at the 2024 general election.
The scandal was not Warburton’s only controversy. In November 2022, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found he had breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to declare a £150,000 loan from Russian businessman Roman Joukovski, received through a Seychelles shell company in 2017. Warburton claimed the loan was “entirely unconnected” with his role as an MP.
Before entering politics, Warburton had been a music teacher and entrepreneur. A member of Mensa and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he studied at the Royal College of Music and worked as a teacher before setting up property restoration companies and the online business MyHigh.St for independent retailers.
After leaving Parliament, Warburton had reinvented himself in the business world, becoming Group CEO for the Capenex group of companies in 2024. Friends say he had successfully turned his life around and was thriving in his new role in the energy sector.
Warburton is survived by his wife Harriet, a public relations specialist and daughter of diplomat Merrick Baker-Bates CMG, whom he married in 2002. The couple have two children. When contacted, Mrs Warburton declined to comment on her husband’s death.
The former MP’s sudden death at 59 serves as a tragic end to a life that saw both political success and spectacular downfall. From winning one of the largest constituency swings to the Conservative Party in 2015 to resigning in disgrace eight years later, Warburton’s story reflects the personal cost of political scandal.
His death comes as Westminster continues to grapple with issues of misconduct and accountability, with the ICGS system he criticised still processing complaints against sitting MPs and peers.
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Image Credit:
Official portrait of David Warburton MP (crop 3) — photo by David Woolfall, taken on 18 December 2019, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). The image is part of a series of official MP portraits made available by the UK Parliament
