Conservative MP William Wragg admitted last night to 'The Times' that he was the one who gave phone numbers of colleagues in the parliamentary group to a man he had met on a gay dating app. In recent days, alarm had spread among parliamentarians due to the sexual incitement calls they had received from a stranger.
Wragg declared himself “very ashamed that I had caused harm to others with my weakness.” His relationship on the Grindr app with a person who used the names 'Charlie' or 'Abi' evolved from initial conversations to exchanging nudity images, to feeling so “scared” of possible blackmail that he gave her phone numbers of other deputies as his interlocutor requested.
MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs committee in the House of Commons, told the Financial Times that she is “almost convinced that a hostile foreign state is behind this.” Last week the Government warned about the links of alleged agents of the Republic of China with parliamentarians, as part of a large wave of espionage.
At the moment, police in the Leicestershire region are investigating the calls as possible offenses under the “malicious communications” law. According to 'The Times', a dozen Conservative MPs and a political journalist would have received the calls. Some rejected them immediately, but two reportedly exchanged images with nudity.
After several days in which rumors spread about what was happening, a group of deputies held a conversation on Wednesday night. They concluded that Wragg being open about his sexuality was linked to what was happening. The Times called him and the MP for Hazel Grove, part of Greater Manchester, acknowledged what he had done.
Bitter farewell
«They had my things compromised and they wouldn't leave me alone. They asked me about people. I gave you some numbers, not all. I told him to stop. “He has manipulated me and now I have harmed others,” the deputy told the newspaper. He explained later that after exchanging photos they were going to meet up but they never did. The suspect of obtaining compromised information to perpetrate blackmail gave him a WhatsApp telephone network number that now does not work.
William Wragg was elected MP, in 2015, aged 29, in a constituency more prosperous than the average for Greater Manchester, unseating a Liberal Democrat. He obtained a bachelor's degree with good grades in History and worked as a school teacher in the town where he has always lived. He achieved notoriety when he moved back in with his parents to save deposit money for a mortgage loan.
He is chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, which organizes meetings and votes for members of Parliament who do not hold government positions. He is a firm defender of deputies supervising the Government, even if it is in the hands of his party.
He was a pioneer in calling for the resignation of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. He was also a supporter of a radical Brexit and critical of confinement during the Covid pandemic. He is one of 66 Conservative MPs who have announced that he will not stand in the next election, probably in the autumn. A third of them, including Wragg, have spent less than a decade in Parliament.
#Mysterious #sexual #conspiracy #blackmail #Tory #MPs #United #Kingdom
