To Think William Wragg should leave Parliament immediately?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

For anyone who doesn't know, William Wragg MP got chatting with someone on Grinder last year. He sent them intimate messages and photos, they agreed to meet up, but it didn't happen.

The Grinder person threatened to make WW's messages public and in return for their silence, Wragg gave this person direct contact numbers for other MPs. He even vouched for his blackmailer to (at least) one of his colleagues.

AIBU to think William Wragg is a fucking liability to the country?

He is so stupid, easily embarrassed and weak that he readily risked the security of other MPs and the country to spare his blushes.

On a side note, surely it is not too much to expect our MPs to refrain from sending dick pics while in office?

I think the only reason that there has been relatively little outrage is that the news broke around the same time as all of those polls showing that the tories are headed for a wipeout. Looks like whatever happens to him matters less if he will be gone in a few months anyway.

Imagine being a teacher and having to hold these people up as something to aspire to.

No, I couldn't either.

If only the Tories were as concerned about this as they pretend to be about a Labour MP’s possible failure to pay £1500 tax. They really are fucking hypocrites.

Seriously? And you’d vote for him and his ilk again? He’s a corrupt moron who shouldn’t be in government. He’s a liability. A lot of them are. Sooner they’re out the better. They’ve ripped the piss out of this country then they’re sitting round sending pictures of their cocks to some random on Grinder? Tell me how that’s not a security risk. Unbelievable.

He admitted to it publicly because he got caught out, no other reason.

But 1.5k is a significant amount. If it was something insignificant like 4.5million it wouldn’t be an issue.

See - this is the reason the UK is in the state it is in. Looking up to such an insignificant amount as four and a half piddling pounds.

What happened to the vision, the ambition, the scope of £37 billion on shonky test & trace ?

Some posters have a very strange idea of what represents courage and integrity.

Sending photos of your tackle to someone you’ve never met then giving away colleagues’ confidential information to try to save your own skin screams stupidity, lack of judgement, disloyalty and cowardice to me.

Yes, OP, he ought to go.

This ^

This story is really about corruption and utter chaos and inertia at the heart of Tory party control. Remember Chris Pincher and his sexual misconduct while being a party whip, responsible for enforcing standards, FFS? It’s clearly a complete void of professional responsibility. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Pincher_scandal

As a voter it is very naive (and massively dick pandering) to say that loads of men send dick pics so it’s normal and fine for male MPs to do that well. Loads of other men think sending dick pics is a creepy and stupid thing to do and they wouldn’t ever dream of doing it, too. So what? Loads of women also wouldn’t dream of ever sending their body part pictures to anyone. So what again.

The point is that MPs can’t do whatever they want, and MPs need to hold themselves to higher standards than non-MPs, because they will make themselves vulnerable to blackmail because they’re an MP. As has exactly happened here. It just goes with the elected office. Don’t like it, that’s fine, don’t stand for election. If you really want to go on casual sex dating apps, you can absolutely do that freely whenever you’re not an MP.

William Wragg MP (who has bafflingly not even had the Tory whip removed for his appalling behaviour) has massively compromised the safety of a lot of colleagues. He would have had a lot of support against his blackmailer had he gone to police.

Gosh, there's a take.

The point is that MPs can’t do whatever they want,

The facts strongly suggest the contrary

Look at the media coverage in the Guardian of what other MPs did when they received naked pics to their phone - they went straight to the police and Parliamentary authorities to report it, as a matter of safety and common sense. That’s the obvious thing to do and it’s much easier for MPs to do this than the general public.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/05/conservative-tory-mp-william-wragg-to-keep-whip-investigation

Glad to see the Daily Telegraph also covering a (female, obviously) Tory party colleague, Andrea Jenkyns MP who seems to be a lone voice calling for Wragg to face sanctions, and also, her case presumably shows his leak of numbers went much wider than the initial male contacts first reported- he put female MPs at risk as well. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/07/take-action-honeytrap-mp-william-wragg-leaked-details/

also Daily Mail without a paywall:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13281181/amp/Ex-minister-Dame-Andrea-Jenkyns-reveals-shes-targeted-Westminster-sexting-honeytrap-amid-fury-William-Toe-Wragg-gave-MPs-phone-numbers-man-met-dating-app-Grindr.html

’Dame Andrea told the Telegraph that she received the suspected scam message at the start of this year and has informed her party whips.
'Why are they protecting Wragg? It's bizarre,' she said. 'I told them that he's compromised MPs, for God's sake. I'm a mother and he shouldn't be handing out anybody's numbers.
'How is it "brave"? The brave thing to do would have been to ignore the blackmail. I really hope to God they can trace who's behind the messages - it's nauseating.'
On Friday, Dr Luke Evans, the Tory MP for Bosworth, revealed he had reported to police a naked picture of a woman he had been sent on WhatsApp.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/04/senior-tory-mortified-after-reportedly-passing-mps-data-to-dating-app-contact

The shocking thing is that at least 2 other MPs are reported to have reciprocated to the random sexting scam. How stupid and sleazy. What further security breaches could they have caused?
Are the party not calling for Wragg to resign because if they did that, they know they’d also have to lose other MPs for doing the same thing?

But I don’t hold information that could jeopardise national security. I’d also fully expect to lose my job if I got found out. It doesn’t matter if others might act the same way. The consequences (actual & potential) of his actions are significant - and he shouldn’t still be in the position he is.

’Dame Andrea told the Telegraph that she received the suspected scam message at the start of this year and has informed her party whips.

After the police, of course

As a general principle, I think that refraining from doing stuff you would find shaming or embarrassing if others found out about it is a pretty good idea.

Another good principle is that if you are found out doing something that comes into that category, own it: admit you've been an utter idiot and do whatever you can to put it right.

Getting others involved, even tangentially, in a desperate attempt to spare yourself embarrassment is absolutely not on. Potentially jeopardising national security in the process raises the whole debacle into recklessness and negligence, and he should resign.

My sons aren’t in government tho are they. They’re not a security risk. These people think they can do what they like. Shameful

This far in, much as it pains me to admit it, he has a point. looks like Reform (a party uniquely not interested in government) could teach the Tories a thing or two about jettisoning unsuitable candidates very early on.

Richard Tice said Reform was "the fastest party to get rid of candidates" when they had acted inappropriately.
He added that he would not take any lessons from the Conservatives over the issue.

^www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68759727^

You usually find labour scandals involved money and Tory scandals involve sex. This is nothing out of the ordinary for Tory sleaze. Shame he couldn't be so 'couragous' before he got caught with his pants down. And now we will have the usual front bench back slapping about how honourable and upstanding he is.

Richard Tice said Reform was "the fastest party to get rid of candidates" when they had acted inappropriately.

Just as well...

To be fair to the Tory party they have had quite a lot of money scandals too.

Dick pics between consenting adults isn’t really an issue. Sending them to a total stranger on Grindr is a dumb thing to do if you are an MP and bothered about others finding out but each to their own.

It’s what he did after that that is a sackable offence whether you are an MP or not and Wragg seems to be getting away with it. People do make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes get you fired for gross misconduct.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68761113

BBC political journo gives first hand account of being targeted by whoever is doing it.
Saying they are one of ‘many men’ targeted- OK yes, but ignoring the fact a woman MP has spoken about being targeted which is horrible for her.

What bothers me is not so much that he sent dick pics (sleezy but seemingly fairly common these days), but how readily he capitulated to blackmail. By giving the phone numbers of other MPs, he opened them up to potential blackmail too. And who knows what other information he might have given out in the future, had he not been caught.

No I wouldn't and I'm that any responsible, working adult would TBH.

Companies and governments have systems in place for reporting blackmail and intimidation. The HoC's systems are known, easy to access and designed for privacy and confidentiality. I'm actually quite sickened that anyone should think the way to deal with these cases is to hand over whatever the blackmailer demands @C1N1C.

Well now the Russians and Chinese know most MPs wouldn't report blackmail, it's open season.