Wragg admitted last week he was targeted by a scammer on dating app Grindr and leaked the home phone numbers of a number of MPs, who were later also targeted by the scandal phishing. “I was scared. I’m mortified. I’m really sorry that my weakness hurt other people,” he told the Times at the time.
POLITICO first revealed last week that Westminster MPs, staff and journalists had been targeted with flirty WhatsApp messages from two unknown phone numbers that, in several cases, were forwarded to the sender sending explicit images.
Wragg’s admission that he shared the phone numbers of some of his colleagues with the honey trapper sparked a torrent of criticism from fellow Conservatives, former secretary of state Nadine Dorries and MPs Conservatives Andrea Jenkins and Jacob Rees-Mogg having all put their foot in the door.
“The question arises as to how much sympathy he deserves for falling into a fairly obvious honey trap, sending deeply unsavory photographs over the internet and then revealing phone numbers he held as a matter of trust for other politicians? Rees-Mogg told GB News on Monday.
Others reacted sympathetically, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who welcomed Wragg’s decision to come forward and apologise.
“The MP involved has made a courageous and comprehensive apology, but the lesson for all MPs is that they need to be very careful when it comes to cybersecurity,” Hunt said.
To date, POLITICO has verified that at least 20 British politicians have received unsolicited WhatsApp messages, including Labor and Conservative MPs. At least two police forces are investigating the phishing scandal, in London and Leicestershire.
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