William Wragg, the Hazel Grove, Manchester, MP who admitted sharing MPs’ personal phone numbers with someone on dating app Grindr, has “voluntarily” given up the Conservative whip.
He will now sit as an independent MP in the House of Commons.
Wragg has also given up his roles on the 1922 backbench committee, of which he was vice-chair, and the Public Administration Committee.
Wragg told The Times last week he had been targeted by a suspected Westminster honeytrap plot.
The North West MP said he had been chatting with someone on an app who subsequently asked him for the numbers of others: “They had compromising things on me. They wouldn’t leave me alone,” he said. “I gave them some numbers, not all of them.”
Up to 20 people, so far, in political circles are subsequently reported to have received unsolicited messages, including explicit photos. Multiple police forces have confirmed they investigating the messages.
Since last week, when the website Politico first reported that people in Westminster had been receiving suspicious messages from senders named “Charlie” and “Abi,” some politicians and political journalists have been coming forward with their own experiences.
On Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the Conservative whips, said: “Following Will Wragg’s decision to step back from his roles on the Public Administration and 1922 committees, he has also notified the chief whip that he is voluntarily relinquishing the Conservative whip.”
Party chair Richard Holden told Sky News: “It’s quite clear his career in public life is at an end.”
Wragg had already announced several months ago that he intended to leave politics and did not plan to stand at the next election.
