David warburton

It’s been a bad week for the Tories. They’ve lost nearly 500 councillors, are facing two key parliamentary by-elections and are now near-extinct in much of the capital. There are some who fear that following the various scandals involving Owen Paterson (lobbying), Imran Ahmad Khan (sex offences) and Neil Parish (porn in Parliament), the Conservative party risks becoming irrevocably associated with sleaze. And such fears are unlikely to be calmed then by the return of a familiar figure to Westminster. For David Warburton has signalled he could come back to the Commons next week at the end of the parliamentary recess, following a stint in hospital. The Somerton and Frome MP last month lost the

Sunday: a day of rest, church and more headlines about Tory MPs misbehaving. Today’s unfortunate backbencher is David Warburton, who faces the unholy trinity of allegations about sex, drugs and undeclared Russian loans. The Somerset MP has now had the party whip withdrawn, following claims he took cocaine and was sexually inappropriate towards three women. He denies any wrongdoing. The excesses of the parliamentary Conservative party are by no means the only booze-related story in today’s newspapers. It appears that Lindsay Hoyle isn’t a fan of Mr S’s dispatches about sloshed parliamentary staffers snoozing off their hangovers overnight in their offices.  For the Speaker has now reportedly launched a ‘new crackdown’ on the