William Wragg, the Member of Parliament who confessed to sharing fellow MPs’ private contact details with an individual on a dating app, has willingly relinquished the Conservative whip.
He will now serve as an independent MP in the House of Commons. In addition to this, Mr. Wragg has stepped down from his positions on the 1922 backbench committee and the Public Administration Committee. He revealed to The Times last week that he was the target of a suspected honeytrap scheme in Westminster.
The MP for Hazel Grove admitted to conversing with an individual on an app who later requested contact details of others. “They had compromising material on me. They were relentless… I gave them some numbers, not all,” he confessed. He expressed regret in the newspaper, stating, “I’m deeply sorry that my frailty has inflicted pain on others.”
It is reported that up to 20 individuals in political circles have received unsolicited messages, some of which contained explicit images. The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they are investigating these reports. Leicestershire Police are also “probing a report of malicious communications.”
Ever since Politico first reported last week that suspicious messages were being received by individuals in Westminster from senders named Charlie and Abi, several politicians and political journalists have shared their own experiences. Luke Evans, the MP for Bosworth, claimed he was a “victim of cyber-flashing” after receiving an image of a naked woman.
On Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the Conservative whips, who oversee party discipline, announced, “Following Will Wragg’s decision to withdraw from his roles on the Public Administration and 1922 committees, he has also informed the chief whip that he is voluntarily giving up the Conservative Whip.”
The 36-year-old’s exit from the Conservative parliamentary party marks a significant fall for a man who, until Monday night, was the vice-chair of the 1922 committee, a group comprising all backbench MPs in the party.
The party whips have emphasized that his decision to step down was voluntary, although party chair Richard Holden has already stated it was “the appropriate course of action.” Mr. Wragg had previously upset some of Boris Johnson’s allies by being one of the first to call for his resignation following the partygate revelations.
He had also publicly called for Liz Truss to resign as prime minister. One of her supporters, Jacob Rees-Mogg, questioned the sympathy Mr. Wragg has received this week, stating that Mr. Wragg had “always been quick to criticize when people have not met his high standards.”
Andrea Jenkyns, a Johnson supporter, labeled Mr. Wragg as “foolish for jeopardizing security.”
Mr. Wragg’s decision to give up the whip may alleviate some pressure on the prime minister, although critics may still question why Rishi Sunak did not take more decisive action – Labour’s Pat McFadden described it as “another demonstration of Rishi Sunak’s weakness.”
For the time being, Mr. Wragg will serve as an independent. His friends believe he has no plans to resign as an MP, having announced his intention to retire from politics at the next election several months ago.
