How deep does the ‘honeytrap’ plot go?

As the Tory MP William Wragg falls victim to a Westminster imbroglio, Sean O’Grady asks who else is involved

William Wragg has renounced the Conservative Party whip over the blackmail plot (PA)

It is not quite a week since the (now ex-Conservative) MP William Wragg confessed to the press that he’d been the victim of a “honeytrap” blackmail plot. Someone he’d met on the Grindr dating website had pressured him into giving the contact numbers for (about 20) politicians and journalists. Some have come out and described the strange, unsolicited messages and/or rude photographs sent to them.

After initially treating Wragg as a victim and taking no action against him, there are reports that some in the cabinet believe there should have been more serious consequences for his foolishness. Other colleagues and former colleagues have been even less generous. It appears that Wragg is in an emotionally vulnerable position and his allies feel that a duty of care and some compassion would be appropriate.

In the last few days, Wragg has voluntarily stepped down from his positions as vice-chair of the backbench 1922 Committee and chair of the House of Commons select committee on public administration and constitutional affairs, in which role Wragg was seen asking the prime minister if he was “part of the deep state”. He has now also renounced the Conservative whip, reportedly of his own accord. He announced in November 2022 that he would not contest the next election; his seat will, in any case, almost certainly fall to the Liberal Democrats. It’s not clear if Wragg remains a now ironic member of the Conservative Common Sense Group: probably not.