Senior Tories call for action against honeytrap scam MP
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Downing Street is under growing pressure to take action against William Wragg after he admitted responding to messages on a gay dating app and sending on phone numbers of MP colleagues after fearing exposure.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns accused her Tory colleague of “unforgivable” behaviour as she became the second Conservative MP to reveal she was targeted in the suspected Westminster honeytrap.
Police are investigating reports of a parliamentary honeytrap sexting scam which has targeted more than a dozen Westminster figures. It was later confirmed Mr Wragg would keep the whip amid concerns he was also a victim.
While he gave an apology that was applauded by senior figures including Jeremy Hunt, who hailed it as “courageous and fulsome”, Downing Street was on Sunday under growing pressure to take action as former cabinet minister Lord Goldsmith joined calls to punish Mr Wragg.
Responding to a GB News report that included a string of messages purportedly sent to one of the Westminster insiders targeted, Dame Andrea wrote on social media: “I too received the WhatsApp and reported it.”
“It was worded identically, mentioning ‘conference’. Unlike some MPs I am not happy with Wragg, as a mother with a young child who only recently had threats. It’s unforgivable of him to compromise the security of fellow MPs. Action is needed.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Dame Andrea said she received the suspected scam message at the start of this year and has informed her party whips.
“Why are they protecting Wragg? It’s bizarre,” she said. “I told them that he’s compromised MPs, for God’s sake. I’m a mother, and he shouldn’t be handing out anybody’s numbers.
“How is it brave? The brave thing to do would have been to ignore the blackmail. I really hope to God they can trace who’s behind the messages – it’s nauseating.”
Lord Goldsmith, a Boris Johnson loyalist who quit Rishi Sunak’s Government over his net zero policy last year, added that he was “perplexed” by the “wall of protection being offered by the Conservative Party” to Mr Wragg.
The peer said Mr Wragg had been “caught handing sensitive material on fellow MPs to what is potentially a hostile state, to avoid personal embarrassment having sent graphic photos of himself to a stranger”.
He added: “He is no doubt suffering from the embarrassment, but that doesn’t make what he did even remotely acceptable.”
‘Pleased I blew the whistle’
On Friday, Dr Luke Evans, the Tory MP for Bosworth, said he had been sent a photo of a naked woman out of the blue over WhatsApp. He received a second message 10 days later and passed the communications on to police.
“I have put my name up to say, well, I hope others come forward,” Dr Evans said in a Facebook video. “I’m just pleased I blew the whistle, reported it to the authorities and now it’s being looked into.”
It is understood the name linked to the WhatsApp account behind the messages he received was Abi – the same name identified by others who suspect they were also targeted.
Pressure has grown for Mr Wragg to face an investigation by the MPs’ standards tsar and step aside from his positions as a vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers and chairman of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
Mr Wragg admitted sending the phone numbers of colleagues after reports emerged last week that a minister, special advisers and a journalist were targeted in the honeytrap.
Nigel Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, said it was “reprehensible to give out private phone numbers of public figures to people who you know are bad actors”.
In an article for The Spectator, Eliot Wilson, a former clerk in the House of Commons, accused Mr Wragg of “reckless, irresponsible, foolish and ultimately selfish mistakes” that had “serious consequences” for other MPs.
Last week, Mr Wragg told The Times he was “scared” when he ha divulged the numbers of colleagues and that the man who approached him had “compromising things” on him. “I’ve hurt people by being weak,” he said. “I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt.”
Mr Wragg was contacted for comment.
