David Warburton comes clean on drug allegations: 'I made a ridiculous decision and a silly mistake'

Speaking to GB News’ Andrew Pierce and Dawn Neesom, Warbuton said: “Absolutely, 100 per cent, absolutely idiotic, I made a ridiculous decision and a silly mistake. I was led down a pathway.

"I was caught, I was photographed, deliberately set up and I fell for it. It was naivety and stupidity. There's no question about that.”

Warburton continued: “It's been a hard time. Initially, when this all broke, I couldn't cope with it and I literally collapsed. I could hardly walk and I went to a psychiatric hospital.

“Meanwhile, my wife had to go into hiding with the kids from the press who were all over the house and they visited our respective parents, my brother and her brother and so on.

“It was an extraordinary time. I spent six weeks in a psychiatric hospital and I learned a huge amount in doing that.

“I've campaigned on mental illness before but it's something that I really want to do much more of now because it's a hideous thing.”

He added: “I did campaign against cocaine and I will also continue to campaign against cocaine. I made a big mistake in doing that, I was led to make a big mistake in doing that. And that's something that anybody could fall into.

“That doesn't make the campaigning wrong. If anything, it makes campaigning more important because it shows that this can happen to people.”

Warbuton was initially suspended from the Conservative Party in April 2022 pending the outcome of the investigation.

The resignation triggers a by-election in the Somerton and Frome constituency, adding to the by-elections triggered by the resignations of Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams.

Warburton has suggested that the Tories may lose his seat in the by-election: “It's going to be tough for them. I mean, I've won three large majorities in a row, but prior to that it was a Lib Dem seat for 18 years over four elections.

“It's going to be difficult and the Government is obviously facing three other by-elections…it’s a tough time for by-elections.”

On future career prospects, Warburton mused: "I could be an Amazon delivery driver, it's true don't laugh!... I'm not ashamed to do anything."

In his resignation letter, Warburton pointed to "malicious allegations" and a "flawed" 14-month investigation which had "inflicted unimaginable and intolerable destruction on my family and on me".

By provoking the “upheaval of a by-election”, Warburton hopes to “illuminate the methods of an oversight system not fit for purpose.”

The MP previously apologised for failing to declare a £150,000 loan from a Russian-born businessman.

David Warburton was found to have breached the MPs’ code of conduct twice by neglecting to register or subsequently declare the payment he received from Roman Joukovski, through the overseas company Castlebrook Associates Limited, in 2017.