MP targeted in Westminster honeytrap resigns party whip

William Wragg, the MP who admitted sharing MPs' personal phone numbers with someone on a dating app, has "voluntarily" given up the Conservative whip.

He will now sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.

Mr Wragg has also given up his roles on the 1922 backbench committee and the Public Administration Committee.

Last week, he told The Times he had been targeted by a suspected Westminster honeytrap plot.

He said he had been chatting with someone on an app who subsequently asked him for the numbers of others.

"They had compromising things on me. They wouldn't leave me alone.... I gave them some numbers, not all of them."

He told the newspaper: "I'm so sorry my weakness has caused other people hurt."

Up to 20 people in political circles are reported to have received unsolicited messages, which have included explicit photos.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it is investigating reports of the messages being sent to MPs.

Leicestershire Police has said the force is "investigating a report of malicious communications".

Last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt praised Mr Wragg for his apology, adding that he had been "courageous".

However, other Conservative MPs have criticised their colleague for his actions.

Andrea Jenkyns MP said he was an "idiot for compromising security" and on GB News, Jacob Rees-Mogg questioned whether he should keep his roles on committees in Parliament.

Some MPs had also privately expressed surprise that Mr Wragg has not lost the Conservative whip and at least one Tory MP had contacted the whips' office to say he should be suspended from the parliamentary party.

On Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the Conservative whips - who are in charge of party discipline - said: "Following Will Wragg's decision to step back from his roles on the Public Administration and 1922 committees, he has also notified the chief whip that he is voluntarily relinquishing the Conservative Whip."

Conservative chair Richard Holden later told Sky News it was "right" for Mr Wragg to resign the Conservative whip.

He said the 36-year-old MP had made a "fulsome apology", adding: "It's quite clear his career in public life is at an end."

Pat McFadden MP, Labour's national campaign co-ordinator said: "The fact it was left to William Wragg to resign is another indictment of Rishi Sunak's weakness."

Mr Wragg, who represents the Greater Manchester constituency of Hazel Grove, had already announced in 2022 that he would not be standing to be an MP again at the next general election, expected this year.

Since last week, when the website Politico first reported that men in Westminster had been receiving suspicious messages from senders named Charlie and Abi, some politicians and political journalists have been coming forward with their own experiences.

Bosworth MP Luke Evans said he had been a "victim of cyber-flashing" after being sent an image of a naked woman.

Another former MP told the BBC he had received flirtatious messages and an explicit picture from someone who claimed to remember them from their time working in Parliament.