Editing article

Title

Summary He admitted he was targeted by a scammer on Grindr and had given out the personal phone numbers of a number of other MPs, who were later also targeted.

Content <p>Senior Tory MP William Wragg resigned from two prestigious backbench roles Monday night as the Westminster honey trap scandal continues to spiral.</p> <p>The Hazel Grove MP quit as chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), a role he has held since January 2020, and as vice chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs.</p> <p>Wragg, who did not stand down as an MP, had previously announced he would not contest the next election.</p> <p><a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/westminster-honey-trap-scandal-uk-tory-mp-admits-sharing-numbers/">Wragg admitted last week</a> he was targeted by a scammer on the dating app Grindr and had leaked the personal phone numbers of a number of MPs, who were later also targeted in the phishing scandal. “I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt,” he told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0e9bbe66-da91-45df-b502-ef6fe572e911?shareToken=9850f551a0e173c8a4dc74fa08e6b6f7" target="_blank">the Times</a> at the time.</p> <p>POLITICO had first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-parliament-naked-photos-phishing-attacks-mps-staff/">revealed</a>&nbsp;last week that MPs, staffers and journalists in Westminster had been targeted with alluring WhatsApp messages from two unknown phone numbers that, in several cases, escalated to the sender sending explicit images.</p> <p>Wragg&#8217;s admission that he had shared some of his colleagues&#8217; phone numbers with the honey trapper triggered a torrent of criticism from his fellow Tories, with former Secretary of State Nadine Dorries and Conservative MPs Andrea Jenkins and Jacob Rees-Mogg all putting the boot in.</p> <p>“The question arises of how much sympathy does he deserve for falling for a pretty obvious honey trap, sending deeply insalubrious photographs over the internet, and then revealing telephone numbers that he held as a matter of trust for other politicians?” Rees-Mogg told GB News on Monday.</p> <p>Others reacted with sympathy, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who praised Wragg’s decision to come forward and apologize.</p> <p>“The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology, but the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity,” Hunt said.</p> <p>To date, POLITICO has verified that <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/how-westminster-whatsapp-honeytrapper-scandal-targeted-party-conference-season-uk-labour-lib-dem-phishing/">at least 20 people in U.K. politics</a> were sent unsolicited WhatsApp messages, including Labour and Tory MPs. At least two police forces are investigating the phishing scandal, in London and Leicestershire.</p>

Author

Link

Published date

Image url

Feed url

Guid

Hidden blurb --- !ruby/object:Feedjira::Parser::RSSEntry author: Jack Blanchard, Seb Starcevic published: 2024-04-09 07:20:09.000000000 Z entry_id: !ruby/object:Feedjira::Parser::GloballyUniqueIdentifier is_perma_link: 'false' guid: https://www.politico.eu/?post_type=article&p=4560909 title: 'Westminster ‘honey trap’ scandal: Tory MP Wragg resigns from top roles after leaking numbers' categories: - Aid and development - British politics - Cybersecurity - Security - UK - Politics summary: He admitted he was targeted by a scammer on Grindr and had given out the personal phone numbers of a number of other MPs, who were later also targeted. rss_fields: - title - url - summary - author - categories - published - entry_id - content content: |2 <p>Senior Tory MP William Wragg resigned from two prestigious backbench roles Monday night as the Westminster honey trap scandal continues to spiral.</p> <p>The Hazel Grove MP quit as chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), a role he has held since January 2020, and as vice chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs.</p> <p>Wragg, who did not stand down as an MP, had previously announced he would not contest the next election.</p> <p><a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/westminster-honey-trap-scandal-uk-tory-mp-admits-sharing-numbers/">Wragg admitted last week</a> he was targeted by a scammer on the dating app Grindr and had leaked the personal phone numbers of a number of MPs, who were later also targeted in the phishing scandal. “I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m so sorry that my weakness has caused other people hurt,” he told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0e9bbe66-da91-45df-b502-ef6fe572e911?shareToken=9850f551a0e173c8a4dc74fa08e6b6f7" target="_blank">the Times</a> at the time.</p> <p>POLITICO had first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-parliament-naked-photos-phishing-attacks-mps-staff/">revealed</a>&nbsp;last week that MPs, staffers and journalists in Westminster had been targeted with alluring WhatsApp messages from two unknown phone numbers that, in several cases, escalated to the sender sending explicit images.</p> <p>Wragg&#8217;s admission that he had shared some of his colleagues&#8217; phone numbers with the honey trapper triggered a torrent of criticism from his fellow Tories, with former Secretary of State Nadine Dorries and Conservative MPs Andrea Jenkins and Jacob Rees-Mogg all putting the boot in.</p> <p>“The question arises of how much sympathy does he deserve for falling for a pretty obvious honey trap, sending deeply insalubrious photographs over the internet, and then revealing telephone numbers that he held as a matter of trust for other politicians?” Rees-Mogg told GB News on Monday.</p> <p>Others reacted with sympathy, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who praised Wragg’s decision to come forward and apologize.</p> <p>“The MP involved has given a courageous and fulsome apology, but the lesson here for all MPs is that they need to be very careful about cybersecurity,” Hunt said.</p> <p>To date, POLITICO has verified that <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/how-westminster-whatsapp-honeytrapper-scandal-targeted-party-conference-season-uk-labour-lib-dem-phishing/">at least 20 people in U.K. politics</a> were sent unsolicited WhatsApp messages, including Labour and Tory MPs. At least two police forces are investigating the phishing scandal, in London and Leicestershire.</p> carlessian_info: news_filer_version: 2 newspaper: Politico EU macro_region: Europe url: https://www.politico.eu/article/westminster-honey-trap-scandal-tory-mp-wragg-resigns-from-top-roles-after-leaking-numbers/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication

Language

Active

Ricc internal notes Imported via /Users/ricc/git/gemini-news-crawler/webapp/db/seeds.d/import-feedjira.rb on 2024-04-09 05:21:17 -0700. Content is EMPTY here. Entried: title,url,summary,author,categories,published,entry_id,content. TODO add Newspaper: filename = /Users/ricc/git/gemini-news-crawler/webapp/db/seeds.d/../../../crawler/out/feedjira/Europe/Politico EU/2024-04-09-Westminster_‘honey_trap’_scandal:_Tory_MP_Wragg_resigns_from_top-v2.yaml

Ricc source

Show this article Back to articles