‘Do I know things about colleagues that aren’t public? Of course’
A new political drama has a sitting MP and former whip as consultant. Chris Harvey talked to him about sex, drugs and Partygate
‘I genuinely don’t believe that Boris did know about the extent of the breaches’
‘Alcohol has been a culture in parliament for generations... it’s not as bad as it was’
Another week, another scandal in Westminster. This time, it’s the significant news s that the Prime Minister, his wife, and d the Chancellor have all been fined by y the Metropolitan Police for breaking aking lockdown rules. A few days ays earlier, married Tory MP David id Warburton was accused of sexual ual misconduct and photographed ed with what appeared to be lines of cocaine – though he has robustly tly denied any wrongdoing.
How does the world d of fiction keep up with this his endless torrent of real- -life spice? Well, it’s giving it a good go. This Easter,
Netflix’s Anatomy of a
Scandal lands on our screens, with Sienna Miller, Rupert Friend and Michelle Dockery starring star in a drama about a torrid affair that th ends with an allegation of rape in i a House of Commons lift.
The drama tells the story of how “Britain’s most mo fanciable MP” – serving Home Office O minister James Whitehouse Whitehou (Friend) – is outed by the press p for cheating on o his glamorous wife (Mi Miller) with an aide. Based Ba on a novel by the political commentator comme Sarah Vaughan, Vaugh the show has a strong stron claim to veracity, veracity as the series consultant is Craig Whittaker, 59, a sitting Conservative MP.
Whittaker has held the swing seat of Calder Valley in West Yorkshire since 2010. He grew up in Australia before returning to the UK in his early twenties and building a career in the retail sector.
The series digs deep into the practice of “strategic lying” by politicians: something of a topical subject. Would Whittaker term Boris’s recent Partygate antics as strategic lying? “I don’t think so,” he says. “You’ll know, as I know, having a party in Downing Street is not like having a party in a two-up two-down in Brighouse (Whittaker’s constituency) … And I genuinely don’t believe, although I stand to be corrected, that Boris genuinely did think, or know, about the extent of breaches. As for other MPs, many were not in London.”
He speculates that “just by peeling back the layers on the onion, it’s going to be staff rather than MPs who breached regulations”.
Would he have attended a party at No10 during lockdown if he’d been invited? He laughs. “Although I’m a highly paid consultant nowadays, I still wouldn’t get a bloody invite to No10.” Whittaker notes that MPs do occasionally get invited “over the road”.
“The one who invited MPs across most, in my experience since I entered Parliament in 2010, was David Cameron. He was a great facilitator of MPs and their spouses going over the road. Once a year he’d invite wives and partners down for drinks, and then in the summer he’d invite us to a barbecue in the garden and he’d flip the burgers.”
Not so Theresa May, however. “I don’t think I ever went over the road when May [was PM], although I was in her whip’s office. She just didn’t entertain at all. I may have been over once for drinks for something since Boris has been PM but as a rule not.”
Whittaker was offered the consultancy role on the TV show when a former schoolfriend of his children (he has three), who is now the assistant production co-ordinator for the show, emailed to ask if he’d be interested. “I would have been quite happy to do it for nothing,” he says. “It was an absolute bonus to get paid for it as well.”
His role, performed mostly via email during the pandemic, involved giving advice on the style of MPs’ clothing, and the sort of a lift that would be used in Downing Street (the scene of the alleged rape at the centre of the plot).
Having read the source novel, Whittaker set about trying to identify the location where Whitehouse and his aide Olivia (Naomi Scott) “collide” in what begins as a passionate clinch.
“I don’t know whether Sarah knew of a particular lift when she wrote about it, but I found the lift from the description in the book, where it was, and took photos of it,” Whittaker tells me, noting, “It’s not a very attractive lift.”
Does he think that it has been the scene of sexual encounters before? “Let’s not forget this is a drama,” he says. “There’s a lot of artistic licence.” On the main characters having sex in Whitehouse’s office: is that fairly common? “If it is, it’s not something
that I’ve come across. I can absolutely guarantee you that it’s never been my experience. And not to mention [my wife] Mrs W might not be appreciative of that, if it was.”
How could we not recall the security camera video of former health minister Matt Hancock kissing Gina Coladangelo? There are definitely echoes of that incident in the show, even down to the MP’s roving hands – was he asked to advise on those? “No comparisons were drawn with any living or past member of Parliament, prime minister, Secretary of State or anybody,” he says.
That “anybody” appears to cancel out the main USP of a drama written by a political insider. Does he think we’ll see Hancock making a comeback? “I am not commenting on that. The guy got me £196.5million for my hospital reconfiguration [in Halifax and Huddersfield], so in my book he’s a great guy.”
After the rape allegation in Anatomy of a Scandal, what follows is a dark, twisty courtroom thriller with barristers Dockery and Josette Simon going toe to toe: similar to BBC One’s Apple Tree Yard and HBO’s The Undoing. The latter, which teamed
Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman with ultra-high-end New York real estate and some very expensive coats, was the baby of Ally McBeal creator David E Kelley, who developed and co-wrote Anatomy of a Scandal.
Kelley and his co-creator Melissa James Gibson have made much of Whitehouse’s privileged status within the British class system. In the show, the accused was once in an all-male Oxford University club called the Libertines with the prime minister, which gives him a measure of protection. The PM’s pitbull of communications even tells him: “Sex doesn’t have to kill a career these days. You might even gain some fans among the older male voters.” That is, until Whitehouse is charged with rape.
Are there also echoes of the sex and drugs allegations made against David Warburton, the Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome? It’s an allegation, not a scandal, yet, he insists, but “allegations of any description against any MP, you kind of think, ‘oh, s---’. Because you know the pain and tribulations that they’ve got to go through to prove their innocence – or not. And the thing with public life is that it’s not just the MP; it’s his or her whole family that have to endure it as well.”
And the alleged victims, of course. So far, Warburton’s wife Harriet is standing by him, which is exactly what happens to the characters in the show. Does the public still take a reading from the offended spouse before deciding whether to pardon a disgraced MP? “I imagine if there were any truth in the matter, his wife probably wouldn’t stand by him,” Whittaker volunteers.
Stress and late-night working surely heighten the possibility of drug taking among MPs. “I think it definitely does for alcohol,” he says. “It’s been a culture in Parliament for generations. I don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be. I’m not aware of any drug taking at all in the circle of people that I mix with.”
In the show, the Libertines practise omertà – is there a similar code of silence among MPs? He laughs. “We are talking about the same Conservative party that I’m a member of, aren’t we? I was a whip in Theresa May’s paralysis of a Parliament. Do I know things about my colleagues that are not public knowledge? Of course, but no more than as a manager in a retail establishment.”
There’s a moment in the first episode when the PM arrives at Whitehouse’s office, and asks if there’s any chocolate. He settles for some Percy Pigs. Does that ring true for the real PM? “I’m not that close to the real PM, so I couldn’t comment on what his favourite nibble is.”
Whittaker is not giving up any secrets. One of the key things the drama seems to be getting at, though, is “cronyism” – does he think it exists in British politics? “I don’t think it’s just British politics,” Whittaker says. “In my view, it exists in all aspects of British life.”
Anatomy of a Scandal is available to stream now