It is a British tradition not to speak ill of the dead, but David Warburton’s passing forces us to confront once again the rot at the heart of Westminster.
Of course the sudden death of David Warburton at 59 years old, while tragic for his family and friends, is also a reminder of the toxic culture that has come to define Westminster. His career collapsed under the weight of scandal, allegations of sexual misconduct (later withdrawn), and his own admission of cocaine use. These were not aberrations unique to him but symptoms of a Parliament where power, privilege, and indulgence too often walk hand in hand.
Britain’s political establishment has long operated on a code of silence, where colleagues close ranks and institutions move slowly, if at all, when serious accusations are raised. Even when wrongdoing is admitted, resignation is treated not as accountability but as the end of the matter, with no lessons learned. Warburton’s fall may have been dramatic, but it sits alongside a string of others: MPs exposed for abuse, corruption, or excess, and each time, Westminster simply carries on.
The electorate, however, notices. The Somerton and Frome by-election, won by the Liberal Democrats after Warburton’s resignation, was not simply a local protest. It was part of a wider revolt against a political class seen as detached, unaccountable, and self-indulgent. That constituency has since vanished on the map thanks to boundary changes, but the anger it expressed has not.
The truth is that scandals like Warburton’s are not about one man but about a system that normalises entitlement and looks the other way until the story is splashed across the papers. His passing should not draw a veil over that reality. If anything, it should focus minds on how far trust in Parliament has fallen and how desperately Britain needs a politics rooted in service, not self-indulgence.
Parliament has buried many men, but with David Warburton it buries another scandal, another point in case that shows the culture of sleaze in Westminster is as alive as ever.
Paul Knaggs, Labour Heartlands
