An investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former Tory MP David Warburton was “materially flawed”, a panel has ruled – two weeks after he resigned his seat in the Commons.
Mr Warburton was suspended from the Conservative Party in April 2022 after the allegations were made against him, along with accusations of drug use.
But he did not step down until June 2023, claiming he had been denied a fair hearing by parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) and prevented from “speaking out” during its inquiry.
Politics latest:
Six months since Sunak unveiled his priorities for the UK – what were they?
The Independent Expert Panel (IEP) has now upheld his appeal and ordered a new investigation to be carried out.
The panel added it had made “no findings on the substance of the complaint against the respondent, or the allegation that the complaint was fabricated”.
Mr Warburton told Sky News: “I do very much welcome the IEP ruling that has upheld my appeal.”
Military personnel using food banks down to ‘personal decisions around budgeting’, claims veterans minister
Rishi Sunak’s ‘stop the boats’ strategy under attack on two fronts
Ex-chancellor Sajid Javid criticises Liz Truss for ‘ignoring’ Treasury warnings against her disastrous mini-budget
According to the panel’s report, the formal complaint against the ex-MP was made by a member of staff in his Westminster office via the ICGS’ helpline in March 2022.
An independent investigator was appointed to look into six allegations in total – four breaching parliament’s sexual misconduct policy and two breaching its bullying and harassment policy – and concluded that two of the sexual misconduct allegations should be upheld.
But the parliament’s commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, disagreed, claiming the investigator had not “appropriately considered and weighed the relevant evidence”.
Instead, Mr Greenberg looked at the evidence himself and decided to uphold three of the sexual misconduct allegations.
“On 8 June, the respondent [Mr Warburton] appealed the commissioner’s decision on the grounds that the investigation was materially flawed in a way that affected the commissioner’s decision; the commissioner’s decision was procedurally flawed and unreasonable; and exceptionally there was another compelling reason that the appeal should be allowed,” the IEP’s report said.
And after consideration by a sub-panel of the group, they decided to uphold the appeal and order a new investigation to take place.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The chair of the panel, retired judge Sir Stephen Irwin, said: “The sub-panel agreed with the commissioner that the investigation was inadequate but disagreed with his decision that a reinvestigation was not required.”
The panel also found:
• The investigator “failed to properly pursue” claims by Mr Warburton that the complainant had “colluded with witnesses to fabricate the complaint against him”
• Material submitted by Mr Warburton had “not been properly assessed by the investigator or the commissioner”
• Mr Greenberg had “relied on evidence that had not been adequately tested” during the investigation and “omitted evidence from his considerations that might have been useful
• And they said “in parts, his reasoning was not sufficient to explain how he had reached his conclusions”
Sir Stephen’s report said the panel had come to its conclusions on 14 June, three days before Mr Warburton announced in a public letter that he was quitting parliament over the handling of the investigation.
A by-election for his seat of Somerton and Frome is due to take place on 20 July.
“As is normal, the outcome was not communicated to the parties until the full written decision giving the sub-panel’s reasons was completed,” the panel said. “They received an embargoed copy of this report today.
“In this case, we are not now publishing the substantive part of the sub-panel’s report, in order to avoid the risk of prejudicing the reinvestigation.”
Mr Warburton has admitted using cocaine, saying he took the drug after drinking “tons of incredibly potent” Japanese whiskey.
However, he denied claims he harassed a female political aide in his Westminster flat.
