LONDON – A senior member of Britain’s governing Conservative Party has admitted to supplying the personal details of fellow lawmakers to someone he met online, saying he had felt compromised after he sent them intimate photos of himself.
Hazel Grove MP William Wragg told The Times newspaper that he had handed over the phone numbers of colleagues to a man he met on gay dating app Grindr, part of what is reported to be a wider operation targeting people working in the British Parliament.
The Times said those colleagues were then sent unsolicited flirtatious messages and two lawmakers had responded by sending explicit photographs of themselves.
“They had compromising things on me,” Mr Wragg, 36, told the newspaper. “They wouldn’t leave me alone. They would ask for people. I gave them some numbers, not all of them. I told him to stop. He’s manipulated me and now I’ve hurt other people.”
News outlet Politico said 12 men, including a serving government minister, were known to have been targeted in the suspected operation, receiving flirtatious messages and pictures from people who called themselves Abi or Charlie.
Neither The Times nor Politico said who was believed to be responsible for the messaging campaign.
The police in central England said they were investigating a report of malicious communications.
A spokesperson for Parliament said they were working to understand the messages, which have heightened concerns that lawmakers could be vulnerable to cyberattacks and bribery.
“Parliament takes security extremely seriously and works closely with government in response to such incidents,” the spokesperson added. “We are encouraging anyone affected who has concerns to contact the Parliamentary Security Department.”
Mr Wragg, who is openly gay, has been a lawmaker in Manchester for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party since 2015 and is the vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, a cross-party parliamentary committee that oversees constitutional issues and standards.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. REUTERS
