MP Quits Tories Over Honey Trap Sexting Scandal

William Wragg, who resigned the Conservative whip after admitting he disclosed politicians’ phone numbers to a suspected scammer, in an undated file photo. UK Parliament

MP William Wragg has resigned from the Conservative Party after admitting to being “manipulated” into sharing phone numbers of politicians with an individual he met on a gay dating app.

On Tuesday, the party’s whips office said Mr. Wragg was “voluntarily relinquishing the Conservative whip.”

Mr. Wragg had already stepped back from his roles as vice-chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee and chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

He had previously announced his intention to leave Parliament at the next election and will now sit as an independent.

‘Sack Himself’

During a phone-in on LBC on Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked if he had shown a “complete lack and failure of leadership” by allowing Mr. Wragg to “sack himself.”

The prime minister replied, “No, well… As you know, that particular incident is being looked at by two different police forces at the moment so there’s a limit to what I can say specifically about that.”

He added: “There are wider things happening and he [Mr. Wragg] rightly apologised for what happened, and it’s a good reminder to everyone, but particularly people in public life, to obviously be careful about unsolicited messages they get.

“There’s lots of bad actors, as we’re seeing around the world, who are trying to cause damage to our democratic processes.”

Asked why he had waited for Mr. Wragg to voluntarily give up the Tory whip rather than removing it, Mr. Sunak said: “There’s a police investigation that’s happening. It’s important that we work through these things in due time.

“The important thing here is that we let the police investigations run their course.”

Conservative Party Chairman Richard Holden said Mr. Wragg had been “right” to resign the whip.

‘They Wouldn’t Leave Me Alone’

Mr. Wragg, 36, told The Times of London last week that he had sent intimate photographs of himself to a stranger he met on Grindr, a gay dating app, but feared he was about to be blackmailed, so he handed over the personal phone numbers of colleagues.

Mr. Wragg said he was sorry for his “weakness” in responding. At the time his apology was praised as “courageous and fulsome” by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, however political pressure increased in recent days amid security concerns.

After he was targeted in the parliamentary sexting scam, Mr. Wragg told the publication: “They had compromising things on me. They wouldn’t leave me alone. They would ask for people. I gave them some numbers, not all of them. I told him to stop. He’s manipulated me and now I’ve hurt other people.”

Mr. Wragg explained: “I got chatting to a guy on an app and we exchanged pictures. We were meant to meet up for drinks, but then didn’t. Then he started asking for numbers of people. I was worried because he had stuff on me. He gave me a WhatsApp number, which doesn’t work now.”

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard has said it is investigating reports of the “honey trap” scam after it was suggested that at least 12 men in political circles received similar messages, raising security concerns.

The unknown scammer is said to have used the aliases “Charlie” and “Abi” while sending messages to coax MPs into sending over explicit pictures.

Labour’s national campaign coordinator Pat McFadden said the fact Mr. Wragg had not been stripped of the whip was “another indictment of Rishi Sunak’s weakness.”

He said: “His MPs were left yet again being sent out to defend a position that has collapsed.

“Rishi Sunak puts party management first every time—and he can’t even do that properly. It is no way to run a country.”

PA Media and Chris Summers contributed to this report.