Senior Tory MP to keep whip during sexting scandal investigation | Conservatives

A senior Conservative MP will keep the whip while the party investigates his role in a sexting scandal.

A Conservative source said William Wragg, the Tory MP for Hazel Grove, would not be suspended from the party whip for now amid concerns that he is also a victim.

On Thursday, Wragg admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on the Grindr dating app because he feared the person had compromising material on him.

Wragg has faced calls to resign after he told the Times that he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”.

Leicestershire police have launched an investigation into reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack.

The police force said it had started an inquiry after receiving a complaint from an MP who received a number of unsolicited messages last month.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, appeared to give his support to Wragg on Friday morning, describing his apology as “courageous and fulsome”.

The Conservative party has declined to comment because of the active police investigation, although the government chief whip was speaking to those affected.

Earlier this week, Politico reported that 12 men working in Westminster, including a minister, had been contacted by a WhatsApp user purporting to be someone who had met them at a recent political or social event, in efforts to acquire personal or sensitive information.

The Guardian spoke to a 13th person who was targeted in the exact same way by a WhatsApp user calling themselves “Abigail” or “Abi”.

“I don’t have any sympathy for him,” the person said of Wragg on Friday. “He was faced with a choice – go to the authorities, which is much easier for him than most people – or hand over [phone numbers] and subject a whole load of people to that threat, not knowing where that would lead.

“We’re now supposed to feel sorry for him?”

Wragg received the first message on 23 January 2023, suggesting the phishing operation has been under way for at least 14 months.

He received a message from an unknown number in the evening that said: “Long time no speak [eyes emoji], how’re you?”

The WhatsApp user, who used a young woman’s photo as their profile picture, claimed to have met Wragg at the Midland hotel bar near the Conservative party conference in Manchester. When he said he had no memory of the meeting, the sender offered to “jog your memory” and sent an explicit picture.

Hunt told broadcasters: “The lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity, and indeed it is the lesson for members of the public as well, because this is something that we are all having to face in our daily lives.”

Some Tory MPs have called for Wragg to resign as an MP after his confession of handing over colleagues’ phone numbers.

Wragg told the Times: “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.”

“I’ve hurt people by being weak. I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt.”

In 2022 Wragg spoke about his struggle with poor mental health. He took a short break from his duties as an MP during a bout of severe depression and anxiety.

A Leicestershire police spokesperson said: “Leicestershire police is investigating a report of malicious communications after a number of unsolicited messages were sent to a Leicestershire MP last month.

“They were reported to police on Tuesday 19 March. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Anyone working in parliament who has been affected has been urged to contact the parliamentary security department.